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Greece Is the Word

The Day’s Most Fascinating News Stories from Throughout the Greek Diaspora

Vol 2, 25 Aug 2020

1. 

AN EVZONE JUST LIKE HIS PAPPOU 

This story warmed our hearts at a time when we could all use, well, more heart warming. 

2. 

WE GON’ PARTY LIKE IT’S YO BIRTHDAY

We got a birthday in the building. John Stamos, Xronia Polla!. Did you know that John Stamos's character was originally named Jesse Cochran on Full House? Apparently, Stamos wanted his character to better reflect his Greek roots, so the show’s producers changed Uncle Jesse’s last name to Katsopolis in season two. These days you can find Uncle Jesse knitting scarves. 

And while we are doing birthday shout outs, Nikos Vertis just turned forty-four. 

3. 

COME FLY WITH ME

What if you spent a full year flying drones over Greece just filming everything and then edited all of that into a short video? 

Speaking of beautiful, how about these photos from our Greek brothers and sisters from Down Under to celebrate World Photography Day? 

4. 

WHAT WOULD CHRYSSIPUS DO?  

This is a challenging time, to be sure. Just getting out of bed is a chore these days, so making good decisions is even harder. That written, the Ancient Greeks had a solution for this. Be stoic. Like Chryssipus, for example. Apparently, without that dude, there would have been no Stoa. Interestingly enough, there are two versions about how Chryssipus died. Either he died from drinking bad wine at a feast or from laughing at a donkey eating figs. 

And while we’re on the topic of bad wine, if you want to try some good wine, take a look at this wine tasting series that the Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce is putting on starting the 26th of this month. 

5. 

DAS IST GREEK 

Nobody has ever confused a German speaker with someone speaking Greek, but whether you are talking about cars, elephants, or doctors, it’s all Greek to die Deutschen. 

6.

A GREEK BY ANY OTHER NAME 

Our parents would have loved this show. It would have saved them a lot of money and heartache. Sit down, young’uns. It’s story time. See, when many of us oldies were young and single, our parents would send us all over the country to Young Adult League (YAL) Conferences. They used their hard-earned money to cover airfare and hotels in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Park City, Chicago, San Francisco, and elsewhere, all with the hope of us becoming good Greek Orthodox adults and meeting (and marrying) other good Greek Orthodox adults. I, for one, would always come back with a phone number, but she’d never be Greek. I still remember Lisa Wofford from New Orleans, who was working on the Natchez Riverboat the night that hundreds of Greeks were on board. Forgive me, father, for I knew not what I did. Anyway, long way of saying that some Greek-American sisters started a web series called Dating Greek. 

7.

MOUSIKI

What would happen if you got fifty-four rebetiko musicians from around the world to collaborate on a track? These players get this edition’s Bravo Sou Award, for sure. 

8. 

ANYBODY HAVE A LIGHT? 

Here’s the mission: the flame on the gyro broiler is out and you need to run with what looks like an Olympic torch from Arby’s to the broiler (26.2 miles away). I held the right arrow down on our keyboard for a full 8 minutes and 26 seconds (1.387 miles) before I started swearing in Greek. Whenever you get tired as you run along the repetitive route, a food truck pulls up next to you and gives you curly fries and cokes so you can perform at peak levels. 

9. 

RYAN LOVE’S GREECE

Ryan is back with Ikaria Part Two. Really quickly, though, when my yiayia Kalliopi was alive (she was a proud Ikarian), Ikaria wasn’t on anybody’s list. It was like the Greek Freak getting picked 15th in the 1st round. Nobody was callin’ it. Yiayia always said Ikaria was the best place on Earth, but Ikaria got no love and wasn’t ever ranked as a top island to visit back then. Today, whether you’re talking about honey or wine or living to be 110 it’s all popping off in Ikaria, baby. Yiayia, if you can read this… Ikaria’s blowin up, like you thought it would, call the crib, same number, same hood, it’s all good… baby BABY!

10.

STONIE ON SPORTS 

Some people think that Greeks are all either running restaurants or painting them. Not true, although some of the best restaurants I’ve been to were run by Greeks and I’ve got at least three Greek painters in my phone (if you need a rec, I got you). Greeks excel at anything they take on, and I’m extremely biased. Take sports, for example. We got game... or, maybe I should say, έχουμε παιχνίδι.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with your community (click here to share it on Facebook) and/or support us on Patreon. And let us know what you think - we welcome any and all feedback! Word up. 

Also, the Greece Is the Word podcast is going to drop soon. We'll be interviewing some amazing people in our community, so look out for that. 

Opa!

Peter and the Greece Is the Word Crew

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