After dining at King of Thai Noodle House on O’Farrell in San Francisco, I bumped into a guy who asked me for a cigarette or something to eat. Having neither on me, I told him about the $2 Portrait project and he replied, “That’s a good deal. Sure.”<br><br>I asked him his name, age and to tell me a little about himself. And that he did.<br><br>Joe Fong is 64 years old; born and raised in San Francisco. He went to San Francisco State for a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and to UC Berkeley for his PhD. Following that he was recruited to Harvard Medical School where he completed his medical training and residency over a 10 year period. My jaw dropped because Joe was so well spoken in describing this with a strong, clear and confident voice. “Could it be true?”, I wondered aloud. “The eyes don’t lie”, Joe said as he stared me down. I then asked him where he worked after returning to San Francisco, expecting to hear we had been a mucky muck at some large medical facility in SF. “The US Postal Service as a carrier and at Safeway”, was his reply. In answer to my inquiry, Joe never practiced medicine because he was (past tense) mentally ill - and his training was “not only on the theoretical side, but also on the practical side….me, as a schizophrenic”.<br><br>Joe used to live at the Baldwin Hotel until “ a black guy told me not to come back or he’d throw me out”. Now he lives on the street and tries to avoid the rain. Joe talked a little about his family who are all deceased. His father died of a heart attack at age 70 and his mother in her sleep. Joe cautioned me to keep stress low - it causes heart disease.<br><br>The last piece of wisdom that Joe provided was that he discovered what caused earthquakes. “It is those particles of stuff from the stars that hit the nuclear waste at the bottom of the ocean that sets them off.” He was however, unaware of the Chilean earthquake of a few days ago, but did recount the 7.1 in SF a few years back.<br><br>I talked to Joe for about 15 minutes and I could see some folks standing around eavesdropping on our conversation and as I was taking his photo. Aside from some of the crazy stuff he was saying, he sounded perfectly normal - the paradox was astounding. We shook hands as I gave him $2 and he had a surprisingly strong grip. Since he hangs out around the Union Square area, I told him that if I see him again, we’ll have dinner together. He was grinning ear to ear.<br><br>Taken 4/3/14