[This entry is cross posted at ordinary-times.com]

I have Rosetta Stone, so I know a few things.

My new favorite restaurant is a place downtown called Lé Fresca in the just-above-water cool 2^nd Avenue North corridor that used to be a choosers paradise of wig and discount furniture shops. Now it’s restaurants and lofts but the Uber shift has convinced business owners that parking is no longer a concern, likely making the one valet stand the most profitable enterprise in the district. Members of the one, true, holy, and apostolic church who are visually recognizable to clergy can park in the church lot but for everyone else finding a spot is an exercise in faith.

One of the few things I know is that “le” is the feminine plural definite article in Italian. The plural ending construct, for lack of a better term, of most feminine nouns, at least those covered by Rosetta Stone through Week 5, Day 3 is to replace the final letter “a” with an “e” unless the final letter is already an “e.” In that case you leave it “e.” So a feminine noun, say “la donna,” becomes plural by changing the “a” in “le” and the “a” in “donna” to “e” so you get “le donne”: the women.

Having been initiated into the mysteries I couldn’t help but notice that “Lé Fresca” seems to have gone rogue. By my reckoning it should have been either “Le Fresce” or “La Fresca.” According to the owner, it’s slang.