My #thursdaythoughts theme has been retired for 2025. While searching for a new one to replace it. the current theme is temporarily going to be (and may end up as) Anything Can Happen Day. This was what Thursdays were called on the Mickey Mouse Club where I stole the idea!
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
No man is really dead unless he breaks faith with the future, and no man is really alive unless he accepts his responsibility to it.—from the 1943 film, A Guy Called Joe staring Spenser Tracy, not to be confused with the Italian film Un Uomo chiamato Apocalisse Joe
I missed writing about it this year but “in Western Christianity, March 19, is known as the the Feast of Saint Joseph and it’s the principal feast day that’s dedicated to Saint Joseph, the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the legal father of Jesus Christ. It has the rank of a solemnity in the Catholic Church.”—from Wikipedia
How Mary Made this Portrait: Mary photographed me for one of my Joe’s Book Club posts in the loft are that’s just outside her home office. For some reason—maybe it was charged and her Nikon Zfc was not— she used my Canon EOS M6 Mark II with EF-M15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM lens (at 45mm.) The Program mode, her standard setting, exposure was 1/60 sec at f/9 and ISO 1600 with a plus two-thirds stop exposure compensation. Fill from the built-in flash was used as well.
A note about the poster that’s next to me: This poster features artwork by Tom Everhart and includes an inscription that the artist wrote to me when Mary and I met him in Denver in 2014. The inscription says, “to the real Joe Cool,” which was a nice thing for him to do.
I am named after my late father who was, in turn, named after his uncle, who was a noted funeral director in Baltimore. My Great Uncle Joe also named one of his sons “Joe,” so there’s a bunch of us around.
HOW TO OBSERVE NATIONAL JOE DAY
On March 27th, National Joe Day encourages everyone to enjoy a cup of joe with all their friends named Joe, Jo, Joey, Joseph, and Josephine. While you’re at it, don’t forget Joette, Jody, Johanna, Jodie or any other variation of the name Joe. If you didn’t already know it, you could also create quite a few nicknames from this one name. As to the name’s history”: Joe is a male name of Hebrew origin and is a short form of Joseph, which means “he will increase” or “God will add.” Lately that seems to apply to my waist size. Joe is ranked as the 103rd most popular given name in the United States with an estimated population of 580,202 Joes, so I have plenty of company.
According to the National Day Calendar…
- Honor all people that have the name “Joe” and If that includes me, thank you so much.
- Read the science fiction novella Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson. Goodreads gives it a 4.1 rating, which means “Loved the book, but something was missing.” I haven’t read the book and my library doesn’t have a copy. I’m gonna check eBay.
- Another way to celebrate the day is by telling stories about friends and family named Joe.
- Use #NationalJoeDay to post on social media.