An Important Update Regarding My Growing Mastery of the Italian Language: Words that seem like they would be cognates in different languages, but actually are not, are called "false friends." For example, the Italian word "chiesa" ("church") when said aloud sounds very similar to the Spanish word "queso" ("cheese") -- especially to someone who has spent the last 26 years living in the American West, where Spanish words fill the air like oxygen. But the two words are not, in fact, related at all. This caused a fair amount of confusion earlier this week when I was trying to buy a piece gorgonzola in the deli.