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Nice try, but no.

 

Come on people, we're talking FREE ALCOHOL here!!

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Ummm, FBI agent George Stinplinketer over the bullhorn as the Branch Davidians compound smolders?

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"Good guess"?  Have you READ Tennyson's earliest manuscripts?  Where do you think Morrison got it from?  Of course, he had to change the words some when Tennyson's estate threatened to sue him with copyright violations...

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Sorry, Francis. I don't spend my free time in a smoking jacket and ascot reading poetry.

 

Ask Nervous Guy about that.

 

:w00t:

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Whaddya mean, no Googling? I found it, but that's not exactly information that I would be common knowledge. Anyway, the first documented use of the term is in dispute, much like the whole "Mularkey" debate.

 

How Joe Six-Pack Popped Up

by Jerry Ison

 

In a recent interview with time magazine, Slick Willy said that if he were a private citizen - Joe Six-Pack, he would want his day in court. He went on to say that, alas, since he wasn't Joe Six-Pack, the country's interests have come first so he can't take the time to make Paula Jones eat her words. At least it was something like that.

 

Joe Six-Pack. Where and when did the average guy get that name? What ever happened to John Q. Public, Average Joe, or even Joe Schmo? It seems that the media has been using this kind of colorful locution to refer to the average person in America.

 

Joe Six-Pack started out back in 1867 as Joe Blow. In 1925 he was Joe Zilch, a play on zero, and by 1927 he was Joe Doakes. He went on to higher education in 1932 as Joe College, off to war in 1943 as G.I. Joe. By war's end Joe Cool had arrived and a year later along came Joe Schmo. While Joe Zilch and Joe Schmo are usually put-downs, Joe Cool is a reference to someone who is, well, cool.

 

John Q. Public was another one of Joe Six-Pack's ancestors coming into play about 1937. About that same time, maybe earlier, unknown persons were known as John Doe; Jane Doe is the person of the female persuasion. To this day, however, Joe Six-Pack could end up a John Doe if he's not careful.

 

According to the Random House Dictionary of American Slang, the first documented use of the term Joe Six-Pack was in the Los Angeles Times in 1977. Wrongo says Boston Globe reporter Martin Nolan. He cites not only the year, but the date Joe Six-Pack was born - August 28, 1970. The name first appeared in an article about another Joe, Joe Moakley, a state senator blowing (Joe Blow?) off about another congressional blowhard.

 

One question bears examination when discussing the media's name for the average person. Why did they choose John or Joe? Maybe back when John Q. Public was born, John was a very popular name. The same may be true for Joseph and its derivative, Joe. That is no longer true, Michael has been the most popular name for an American boy since the mid fifties and Brian is a close second. Wouldn't Michael or Mike Six-Pack or even Brian Six-Pack make more sense that Joe? Especially when you consider how Irish both those names are and how much we Irish-Americans love our beer? Yet with all that logic, Mike or Mike Six-Pack just don't quite say what Joe Six-Pack does.

 

- Patrick Sixpack

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