The passing of Bubby Knott yesterday brought to light something that I never knew about him – his non-nickname name (say that three times) was Joseph. This, on the heels of my Buzzyblog post yesterday convinced me to go with this little take on dudes named Joe.
When I recently heard someone in Buzzy’s Country Store make the statement “You can always trust a man named Joe,” I thought that to be a cool thing to say about those of us named Joe. (For those of you who don’t know it, the J. in my name actually stands for Joseph as I was named after my Great Uncle Joe Norris (click here for previous Buzzyblog post on how all that eventuated.)
Coupled with the resurgence and reappearance of my guy Joe Flacco, after I heard my Buzzy friend make his statement about always being able to trust a Joe, my first thought was “Hey that might be a good Buzzyblog topic.”
However, my second thought was “Oh no, maybe I better not do so” because it might sound like a political endorsement given that a fella named Joe is our current President. I don’t want to rile up any of my MAGA friends since they have been fairly quiet of late (at least, thankfully, around me they have.) Bottom line, I ascribe to the old saying of letting sleeping dogs lie – literally!
But Bubby made me decide to risk talking about how guys named Joe really are good guys. Proof of this is in a review listing of famous Joe’s and the only dirtbag to be found is/was Joseph Stalin (click here.) (Joe McCarthy gets a pass here, simply because, when he is compared to Stalin, he doesn’t seem so awful after all.)
As for me being a “Good Joe,” I have to confess that I always considered myself to be a Closet Joe. By that I mean, I was never too content with being called Joe or Joseph because after being dubbed J. Scott for all of my formative years, it just didn’t sound right to me. I never really considered myself a Joe, choosing instead to go by J. or Scott with the caveat that it wasn’t Jay, but just J.. (I still don’t know if a period is needed after a period at the end of that sentence.)
But back to Biden for a minute, if you google Joe Jokes many of them are Biden-related jokes about his age. There was an exception though: “If Biden’s wife is referred to as the First Lady, what is his mother called? Answer – Joe Mama.” Sorry, blame it on my not having had that second cup of Joe yet. (For a discussion of the four theories as to how coffee came to be known as Joe (click here.)
Music-wise you got Hey Joe, Ugly Kid Joe, Joe Cocker and Joe Walsh all of whom I have included here on the Buzzyblog several times previously. Instead of something from one of them, lets check out a pretty lady named Mariska as lead vocalist for the band Shocking Blue. You know their big hit “Venus” but the followup to that was this tune with Mariska singing about Mighty Joe. (Doesn’t sound like she thought her Joe was so great though.)
Hi. Tina Swan here. Your blog today made me think of my father and my brother. Both of their names were Joe (since my brother was a “Jr”). They were definitely good guys. My brother was Joe Clark. I’m told you have my brother’s picture on the wall in Buzzy’s – a group picture on the front steps along with some of his buddies. Joe’s death gave personal meaning to the saying “The good die young” as he was killed in an auto accident at age 25 in 1974. He wasn’t a celebrity, but he was my best friend and my hero. Thanks for bringing back the memories.