Watching food personality Rachael Ray on television makes us want to buy exactly $40 worth of “EVOO,” break the glass bottles the EVOO came in, and use the oily shards to cut the word “yummo” into our skin just to feel again. Watching chef Bobby Flay on television makes us want to toss ourselves on a smoking-hot grill, smear ancho-chili sauce and mango chutney on the marks in our flesh, and jump on a cutting board to proclaim our hatred for him. Our reactions are relatively mild.

Then, why are we attending Flay-Ray’s joint speech tonight at the Kennedy Center as part of the ASAE and Center for Association Leadership’s 2005-2006 Nation’s Capital Distinguished Speakers Series?