Greek to Me

It is a fact of family history that my brother Donnie would constantly and without any guilt lie to my brother Stephen.

There are many instances of this. Enough that I could make several blog posts out of the lies. He did this for personal gain as well as for personal mirth.

Today's episode of "Lies My Brother Told Me" comes from a moment of personal mirth, including the embarrassment of the younger brother.

In our town, there opened a Greek restaurant. The restaurant, playing off of the pithy phrase, was named "Greek to Me."

Simple, correct?

No so.

Donnie somehow managed to convince Stephen that the restaurant was actually named "Greek Tome" (Pronounced toe-may').

That seems ridiculous. I understand that it seems ridiculous.

But Donnie, as a liar, was not content to have Stephen believe that the store name itself something nonsensical.

No, Donnie is much more crafty than that.

So he created a simple explanation.

"Tome," Donnie told Stephen, "is the Greek word for 'food.'"

Brilliant!

Now, something interesting happened when Donnie would lie to Stephen. Stephen would BELIEVE him. Hook, line, and sinker, defending the lie to everyone who challenged it.

"It is not Greek Tome," my father tried to tell him. "It's Greek to Me!"

"No, it's not," Stephen would retort. "Tome is the Greek word for food!"

Finally, after trying endlessly to convince Stephen that the store was not, in fact, called Greek Tome, Dad resorted to desperate measures.

He marched Stephen into Greek To Me and made him ask the people behind the counter (who were bewildered) what the name of the restaurant was.

"Greek to Me," they replied.

"You mean to tell me," Dad said to them. "That it is not Greek Tome, with Tome being the Greek word for food?"

The people there cracked up. "No," they responded.

Donnie's lie busted, we returned to daily life.

And still call Greek to Me, Greek Tome.