Theme of the Week Solution

Submitted by barefootedsurf… on Mon, 03/23/2026 - 20:00

I wonder how many readers we have who already know that it is #NationalJoeDay on March the 27th... ? 

Well, whether you knew or not, if Joe is your first, or any middle name, get ready to celebrate - and that also goes for any Joels, Joeys, Joses, as well as for ladies called Joanna or Josephine, and people, of either sex, who are just called Jo. 

And all these names are actually derivatives from another form of the name, Joseph, which is Hebrew, and used in the bible, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. 

We have already featured a few Joes on Cards of the Day and in the newsletters, and some of them were card issuers -  a quick flick through finding all these.... 

 

panini Football 90

Our first clue card, on Saturday the 21st of March, started us off with a Joe, McLaughlin.

We usually associate him with wearing a blue Chelsea strip, which he did for most of his career, but here he is at Charlton Athletic, where he had only just turned up when this card was produced, and he only lasted there for a year before moving on to Watford.

In actual fact it looks like this is his only appearance in Charlton Athletic club colours, which is why we picked it!

Roever Luftschiffereise London Rom

 

Our second clue, of Sunday the 22nd of March, was the red herring, for, in America, coffee is often called "a cup of joe". And this German card is certainly an attractive one, by Julius Roever of Braunschweig.

There are many theories as to why coffee is called joe, and I am not sure I believe any of them. The most popular are that it comes from a combination of the two words java and mocha - that it was a drink for the working class, the men of which, in American slang, are known as Joes - or that during the First World War the Secretary of the American Navy banned alcohol but would allow coffee, and his name was Josephus Daniels.

The last story seems the most plausible, and it also gives us another variant Josephus, for Joe.

 

Au Bon Marche Joe a la Fete Foraine

And thirdly, on Monday the 23rd of March we had a Joe who never existed, save for in this animated cartoon, dancing with a bee called Bzz.

This Joe was once really well known, but he seems to have been forgotten. However as the story behind him is ecologically sound maybe it is time to reboot him - though some of our readers may look at this card and be transported back to a time when they were young - in either the cartoon series or the hour long film.

Though primarily shown in its country of origin, which was France, the series did appear right across the world. And it turns out to have been the first animated series ever to have been dubbed into Welsh.

On which note, if anyone else would like to send us any information or scans from their collection which relates in any way to our theme of the week, please do - simply email us at  webmaster@card-world.co.uk - and this is the same for any corrections, or for general cartophilic correspondence and chat.