Dear DH,
It would be easier to explain differential calculus, but I'll try.

The Brennans have been in the restaurant business since 1943 when Owen Brennan Sr. opened his first establishment on Bourbon Street and became a successful restaurateur. He had plans to relocate to Royal Street in the late 1940s, but he died in 1955, only months before the move.

It seems that this was when the trouble started. The restaurant was left to his wife Maude and their three sons, but Maude sold stock to her father-in-law. When he and his wife died some years later, their stake was left to their five children and the three grandchildren. So now there were lots more Brennans involved in the business.

By the 1970s the family empire included the Brennan's on Royal Street, Commander's Palace, and other Brennan's establishments in Atlanta, Houston, Dallas and Biloxi, Miss. Then in 1974 the split in the family came when Maude and her sons assumed control of the Royal Street Brennan's, and Ella -- along with her brothers and sisters -- took over the six expansion restaurants.

OK, are you following this? Now we have the Royal Street Brennans and the Commander's Brennans. An agreement was made in 1979 by several members of the clan that restricted the signers from opening any restaurant with the name "Brennan" or "Brennan's." But this contract did not prevent the younger generation from doing just that. Enter Ralph and Dickie, sons of John and Richard Sr. And enter Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse, which opened in 1998 and caused untold confusion for diners who thought they were eating at the original Brennan's Restaurant. This, then, led to the very complicated lawsuit.

Back in 1998, members of the Brennan family attempted to come to an agreement about name use. However, two years later, they found themselves in a fight over how Dickie Brennan could use his name in the names of his restaurants. The two sides -- Dickie Brennan vs. Pip, Ted, and Jimmy Brennan -- went to battle when the Royal Street Brennans filed suit. The main bout was a two-week trial that occurred in November 2002. But when the smoke cleared, no one was exactly sure who had won.

The jury found that Dickie had breached the contract that had been reached in 1998. The three cousins were awarded $250,000. But the jury also ruled that Dickie had not committed fraud. However, the question still remained whether Dickie could use his name on his restaurants.

So this year the Royal Street Brennans have filed suit again over naming rights.

Hey Blake,
I just read your column about po-boy sandwiches' origin. I was a boarding student at Holy Cross College (now Holy Cross School) during the years 1944 to 1947. I remember a Martin's or Martin Bros. on St. Claude Avenue that advertised "Home of" or "The Original" po-boy. I ate many of them there and they were certainly the real thing. Could the Martin Brothers in your column have been the same as the St. Claude establishment?
Tom Rosenblath

Dear Tom,
Yes, indeed, these were the very same guys. Their place, called Martin's Poor Boy Restaurant, was located at 1940 St. Claude Ave. The original restaurant was owned by Benny and Clovis, who are usually given credit for creating the po-boy sandwich when they had a restaurant in the French Quarter and fed the hungry transit workers during the strike of 1929. But later it was run by other family members.