Cooking without looking

By DAVID FAUCHEUX

I realize I have let my fourth-year anniversary slide past with no retrospective or clever posting about time and its winged flight. I had originally planned to do a piece on The National Spelling Bee but did not. Imagine knowing how to spell and define words such as bogatyr, ziarat, escabeche, chorion, nacarat, ecrase, numnah, thymele, oxylophytic, sinisize, hyphaereses, taleggio, introuvable, or guerdon.

Well, Samir from Indiana managed to and won thousands of dollars in prizes and may one day, as can happen, work for the spelling bee in some capacity. I think this and the geographic bee sponsored by National Geographic are neat ways to showcase nonathletic talent; and kudos to ABC for broadcasting in prime time the final orthographic rounds. I also had thought to mention Steve Lopez, award-winning columnist for the LA Times, and his book The Soloist but my email to Mr. Lopez, while read according to the receipt pending notice I attached, has not been answered, so check back later on this blog.

I do want to mention the cooking show developed for the blind. I found this a novel idea with lots of possibilities. I recently visited the Web site and found it interesting. It is my understanding the show is in its third season and may pick-up some big sponsors and also appear on a cable channel. There seem to be so few shows by or about blind people, as major or supporting characters, game shows rarely have us on, that when someone wanted to do a show like this, I thought wow! Renee---I spoke to her last week---is the producer and seemed optimistic and brings years of television experience to this project.

Imagine that!