Cup of Joe

[Donald M Lance]

on 6/18/02 8:34 PM, James A. Landau at JJJRLandau at AOL.COM wrote:

> In a message dated 06/18/2002 7:58:16 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> JMB at STRADLEY.COM writes:
>
>> Josephus Daniels (18 May 1862-15 January 1948) was appointed Secretary of
> the
>> Navy by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Among his reforms of the Navy
> were
>> inaugurating the practice of making 100 Sailors from the Fleet eligible for
>> entrance into the Naval Academy, the introduction of women into the
> service,
>> and the abolishment of the officers' wine mess. From that time on, the
>> strongest drink aboard Navy ships could only be coffee and over the years,
> a
>> cup of coffee became known as "a cup of Joe".
>
(snip)
>
> One wonders whether the abolition of the officers' wine messes in an
> otherwise dry Navy was a significant enough event to have inspired a nickname
> for coffee.

I've always assumed that 'joe' was directly related to 'java'.

DMLance