Joe was a character in an earlier generation comic strip: Lil Abner.
Joe had a dark cloud that followed him around.
I rode on Bart, our local excuse for a subway system, next to an attractive woman. Everything she told me about her life was a calamity. I was going to the airport and she was going to visit her boy friend in jail. The bus from Bart to the jail had a very limited schedule and the last bus would get her to the jail just before visiting hours were over.
We both had to make one change of trains and there were two alternative stops to do it. Since she had been to the jail previously, I trusted her statement that the second stop was better.
You guessed it. The second stop meant changing tracks over 100 yards, the first would have been just getting off, walking 10 feet across the platform and getting on. She couldn't possibly make the last bus and I had to carry my 
bag an unnecessarily long trip in a hurry.
I suspect Joe Btfsplk is a real human prototype. Most of my life has been blessed. Some very dull people who always associate with friends who are similarly blessed seem to do well. Then there are people like the woman on Bart.
