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And now, boys and girls, for extra credit, what is the origin of the phrase, "cup of joe?" There are two primary theories, one involves the Navy and the other, Andy Warhol. I prefer the Navy origination as "Navy" says "seas" and I'm all about the sea.
From the BBC's "The Guide to Life, The Universe, and Everything," (Ed. note: the British would punctuate that with the comma after the end quotes, but then again, I'm not British):
In 1914, the secretary of the US Navy, Admiral Josephus 'Joe' Daniels abolished the officers' wine mess. From that time on the strongest (and apparently therefore the drink of choice) on board navy ships wascoffee. It was dubbed 'a cup of Joe' after the secretary.
'A cup of Joe' also refers to the GIs' favourite drink. During World War II the US defence workers were supplied with as much coffee as they wanted. Coffee was a source of warmth and comfort for battle-weary troups.
The slang was popular enough to be included in the Reserve Officer's Manual of 1931.
A variation on this theme has it that Joe refers to the average Joe, thus making 'a cup of Joe' the average drink of the average man.
The slang was popular enough to be included in the Reserve Officer's Manual of 1931.
A variation on this theme has it that Joe refers to the average Joe, thus making 'a cup of Joe' the average drink of the average man.
or
There was a New York company named Martinson's Coffee (Andy Warhol liked to paint the cans) owned by a man named Joe Martinson. The neighbourhood of the company would be saturated by the aroma of roasting coffee, and coffee therefore became known as 'a cup of Joe'.
Continuing the theme, "java" became synonymous with "joe" during the 19th century when the majority of the world's coffee came from the island of Java in Indonesia.
No matter where your morning cup of joe originates, it's better living through coffee, or in my case, there's no living until coffee.
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| From Port Townsend, WA |
Love this entry! The brand of coffee and the coffee cup are so you! I recently saw an article about the Naval origin for 'cup of joe'.
ReplyDeleteI can see your mermaid out the window. She appears to be weathering nicely! ~jm
Hey carpool buddy! thanks for directing me to your blog and to you. I've got a couple blogs going too... Funny that we're both doing this, dontcha think?
ReplyDeleteHi Annette,
ReplyDeleteYou can't leave me hanging: what are your blog addresses?! Cannot believe it's been 28 years (!) since carpooling, parallel parking in Westwood and, more importantly, establishing our friendship. "Hi" to your Brett for me. ~Tricia
I like the Admiral Joe's version better. Yeah, the picture of the swarthy, the seas, the coffeeeee (that's to make it rhyme) . . . , much more "substantial" than Andy's version, I think!
ReplyDeleteLike JM, I immediately was looking out the window of your photo to place the picture. Wonder what that means about us?
To go with your coffee, you might enjoy a podcast of a fellow Mill Valley resident, Jane Hirshfield. Just met this lovely poet last week-she had recently done a reading in the Mill Valley library. She and a theoretical physicist had an extraordinary talk about TIME and the way it is perceived through the different lenses of art and science. Perhaps you will run into her at Whole Foods! xo http://www.lfla.org/event-detail/565/Jane-Hirshfield-Sean-Carroll-
ReplyDeleteprobably should be "a reading at the Mill Valley library." my ability to choose the right preposition in my mother language has progressively worsened as i've introduced other languages into my repertoire. :(
ReplyDeleteIn my book, any way you phrase it, libraries are great. And given your oral and written ability/agility (!) with three languages, you need only worry if a word choice gets you a bowl of cherries (cerezas) instead of a glass of beer (cerveza), si?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder about First Fridays and other programs at Mill Valley Library; I think I was in Humboldt County when Ms. Hirshfield was speaking/reading. Bummer. ~TFJ