I recently ran across some information about March 27 being National Joe Day - which in turn made me wonder why coffee is sometimes referred to as Joe.

Before I share with you the answer, you need to know the original intent of the day. It's so that those who don't like their given name can change it to Joe for at least one day.

But why Joe and not Bob or Mike? Because apparently everyone likes the name Joe. "But what about the ladies," you ask? You should go by Josephine or Jody.

Why I don't know, but the first thing I thought of when I saw it was Joe Day was coffee, which then led to the question, "Why is a cup of coffee sometimes called a cup of Joe?"

Come to find out, it stems back to a former Secretary of the U.S. Navy - Josephus Daniels. He's the namesake of the proverbial "cup of Joe."

As it turns out, the use of Joe as slang for coffee dates back to World War I. It was then that Daniels became Secretary of the U.S. Navy under President Woodrow Wilson.

Daniels was a very strict and moral man, so while in charge he increased the number of chaplains, discouraged prostitution and banned the consumption of alcohol.

As a result, the amount of coffee that was being purchased steadily increased, eventually being called disparagingly "a cup of Josephus Daniels" - soon shortened to "a cup of Joe."

So now you know, should it ever come up during the course of a conversation - and what a coincidence, I just took the last sip of my morning coffee Joe.

Source: qz.com


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