Joe Btfsplk
Stay Away From Joe
Andy Capp
Cartoonist, Reg Smythe, who created the working class comic strip hero Andy Capp, died of cancer at 81 in 1998. He drew the Andy Capp comic strip for the Daily Mirror for more than 40 years.
Another character in the series was called Joe Btfsplk, a name that is next to impossible to pronounce. Joe served to illustrate how some people are. He walked around with his own private rain cloud over his head, and anyone coming close to him would have some terrible form of bad luck. Because of his reputation Joe was a very lonely and feared little man.
The “Joe’s” in our society today are those people that always have a bad news story to share with you. They are the first ones to tell you about a coming storm, accident on the freeway, problem in their life or, YES the downside of any economical time. And they can bring you “bad luck” if you listen, even worse if you buy in to their negativity.
Someone once told me, “An unwelcome visitor soon departs.” When you run into “Joe”, let him know how unwelcome his tales of woe are and he and his cloud will go rain on someone else.
