The Great British Baking Show

 Reality TV isn't all bad and doesn't always make you feel dumber by the end of the episode! MJ and I recently picked up a new show on Netflix called the Great British Baking Show, one of the most straightfoward titles I can think of. (Jeopardy could be renamed the Great American Trivia Show without too much dropoff, IMO) Amateur contestants around Britain (and really all of the UK, as there is a guy from the Shetlands on there, which is in the Northern Isles of Scotland, where Scotland in itself is one of the components of the United Kingdom, which I shamefully just learned about recently) who bake! It turns out that baking is not as easy just buying Nestle cookie dough from the store, cutting them into pieces, placing them on a tray, and placing them in the oven. That's definitely part of the process, but lot of other steps in between as well as style and flavor and presentation. Ah, the presentation. The viewers can't taste the food from the show, but we can definitely see it in all its glory, and some of the baked goods (cakes, tarts, bagels) just look lovely. I learned what an upside down cake is! I learned that bread can be "braided" into "plaits" just like MJ does her hair into an artistic pattern, but the plaiting can be a devil of a process of going over and under and over and under like knitting. There's a reason I received a C in Home Economics in 6th grade (my only C ever, in high school, college, or even law school!) Grade inflation is definitely something to watch out for, because I don't think I'm the only one who's almost never got a C and rarely saw a B. If everyone gets an A (a common occurrence in MJ's nursing program apparently), how does one differentiate between the top students? It also devalues the A. I say now that I if I were ever to become a teacher I'd be tough on grades and give out harsh criticism (the job of a Simon Cowell-like Paul Hollywood on the Great British Baking Show), but I'm sure the "Me Me"/ Snowflake Generation coupled with helicopter/ snowplow parents would make me see the light and change my ways. 

Unfortunately, the world is not as happy and go-lucky as everything on the GBBS (there are pictures of castles, cottages, idyllic scenery, ducks, upbeat music, and grazing downland sheep) and gun violence/ mass shootings are back after seemingly taking a bit of a break during the pandemic. The shooter in Atlanta who killed 8 people at massage businesses has become a trending topic unfortunately and being pointed to as the epitome of the hate against Asian Americans. I appreciate this recognition that Asian Americans are suffering too during the pandemic especially due to the false accusations that we somehow Asians have to do with creating the Covid-19 pandemic, but racism against Asians has been occuring way before the Atlanta shooting or before Covid-19, and it shouldn't take these 2 extreme events to recognize that. I take the Altanta shooting more as a reminder of why easy access to guns is so dangerous, especially when it ends up in the hands of the wrong people as it so often does in this country (I can't imagine how many psychos there are now who just got out of playing days and days of first-person shooter games in their basement possibly triggering more violent urgers), and hate against any kind of people, short people, brown people, black people, gay people, women, and Asian people should all be removed to prevent them being a trigger for another mass shooting. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan