Quantcast

Pat Bruno Battling Cancer, Older than Previously Admitted

s-BRUNO-large.jpg The internet has been tweeting and crowing about the appointment of Michael Nagrant to the coveted post of Sun-Times dining critic - an appointment that was well deserved. Pat Bruno, the recently fired critic, has fallen by the wayside as ousted figures often do. Many people didn't like him or didn't respect his ethics - but here's one thing that we can respect: he didn't use extenuating circumstances to create buzz around his firing. It turns out Pat Bruno is fighting cancer. And he's also 77, not 68 as previously reported.

Robert Feder at Time Out pointed us to a Washington Post article where "Pasquale" Bruno (the name that Grub Street revealed he uses on non-critic-work) discusses his battle with cancer. The worst part? It's a cancer that may have been caused by a food-borne virus.

The article is worth reading, if only to remind us that Bruno can still put together a compelling article and deserves respect. We may be jaded about the last few of his 26 years of food writing, but this shows that Bruno may have only been burned out on the job, not the craft of writing.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@chicagoist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

Comments [rss]

  • Nicholas

    There have been a few scientific papers on possible link between a couple of viruses, including CMV, with glioblastoma. But, these are quite controversial.  To suggest you can get brain cancer from a food-bourne virus is quite misleading. I read the piece, and I see Bruno is quoting a doctor, who probably made a flippant remark about possible causes. Bottom line is they do not know of specific causes for this cancer. So, the chances of a viral brain cancer are very remote but not exactly zero. Still, don't think that burger is going to give you brain cancer. (BTW: Wikipedia article on Glioblastoma, while good, only reports on the link to viruses and not the surrounding debate and skepticism in medical/scientific community).

  • Nicholas - Thanks for the info!

blog comments powered by Disqus

send a tip

tips@chicagoist.com