And it has its usual crop of seriously deluded, self-aggrandising competitors (which of course the show insists on calling candidates) for us to marvel at in the customary open-mouthed astonishment at quite how delusional they really are.
And, as usual, it's already throwing up some language issues for me to comment on.
So I have two questions from the first episode.

One candidate introduced himself as, "The EST of everything, the coolest, smartest and wickedest in business."

I have no idea what he means by EST though I am reasonably confident it doesn't mean Eastern Standard Time. Any suggestions.

The second one was also a head-scratcher. The task was to create branding and advertising for a fictional new Cruise Line company. The first thing they had to decide on was a name for the company. The chosen leader for the women's team instantly wanted the name "Bouji Cruises" and railroaded the others - who clearly had not the faintest idea what the word 'Bouji' was supposed to mean - into accepting it. When they came to pitch their idea to industry professionals it was also clear that they too had no clue about it. Funniest though was that when those professionals asked the obvious question it rapidly became clear that she herself had only the vaguest notion. Like everyone else I hadn't ever come across the word. I know NOW what it means because I have googled it and even when you know it's a pretty poor choice. My question is, without looking it up, has anyone here ever heard the term?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

Never heard of bouji. Bijou, yes, and there's "boojum," but not bouji.

My preferred cruise line's name is Cruise On Virally Infected Dreamliner or COVID. Or maybe Legionnaire Lines?

I'll post the meaning of "bouji" (usually spelled "bougie" apparently) later.
Any idea what he could have meant by EST?

Someone answered this on FB and I feel a bit stupid for not working it out for myself. In my defence he did say "E... S... T..." as three separate letters which misled me. It's obvious now that he meant it as "est"... smartEST, coolEST, wickedEST". I feel a bit dim* for not realising. Also in my defence it was late when I watched it and I was tired. That's my excuse, anyway.

(*I wonder if I'm dim enough to be a "candidate" in the next series. Though I'd probably fail the audition as not being delusional enough.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

Ah - Besides "established" or "everybody shine together," and initialism for an apparently famous rapper.

Seems I had heard bouji before.
Here

Nothing linguistically interesting this week though I did have a momentary chuckle at the candidate who said (as they were designing a toothbrush) "What we want is the kid wanting to play with his wand."

That reminds me of a very old TV show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6a3fck0NBI

Hmmm, I have never seen it, Geoff.

What is your favorite old TV show? Some of those old shows were so good, like St. Elsewhere.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Hmmm, I have never seen it, Geoff.

What is your favorite old TV show? Some of those old shows were so good, like St. Elsewhere.

Wasn't that the one with the totally stupid ending? The one where all the episodes of however many series there had been had taken place wholly within the mind of an autistic kid looking at a snowglobe with a model of a hospital in it? Never watched the series but the ending is infamous as one of the most hated series finales of all time. Up there with Quantum Leap and How I Met Your Mother.

In the fluff department US-based shows it's a tossup between Taxi, Cheers and WKRP in Cinncinnati. For UK shows, Monty Python and Waiting for God.

I liked WKRP in Cinncinnati, Barney Miller, and of course, The Andy Griffith Show. Those who were Andy Griffith fans, like I was, might like to watch "A Face in the Crowd," his 1957 debut film.

Well, let's see. WKRP must have aired a few episodes in the Uk because I do remember seeing it but maybe it was on a cable channel. Taxi and Cheers both aired regularly and I enjoyed both though Taxi was more in line with my sense of humour. Barney Miller and Andy Griffith mean nothing to me at all. Of the British ones Waiting For God left me cold and Monty Python I liked at the time but it hasn't aged well. Let me think of some really old ones - not as easy it it should be as a lot of the older shows have aged very badly. Steptoe and Son was pretty funny but has some racist and sexist elements that sit badly now. Dad's Army was a favourite that is as good now as it ever was. Hancock's Half Hour was good but better on the radio. Most of the others that I can remember either weren't actually very good or couldn't be made nowadays because their content would be offensive.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

I so agree about the Andy Griffith show, Tinman. There were many lessons to learn from that. The same with Raymond. Of course, I have always liked Friends and Frasier, as I've said here before.

Geoff, yes, St. Elsewhere had that stupid ending, you are right. I did like it though, and ER too. Oh, and LA Law.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:


Geoff, yes, St. Elsewhere had that stupid ending, you are right.

I think you mean Bob.

I also mentioned that Quantum Leap had an ending that everyone hated and then just days later discovered that they are intending to bring back Quantum Leap. If they do I have three hopes for the series. 1. That they find a way to make sense of its original nonsense ending. 2. That they do something in honour of Dean Stockwell who died last year and 3 (And most important) that they stick to the original episodic format and don't try to have some grand over-arching plotline which is something I hate about almost all modern series. It's Ok to have an over-arching conceit but when you have something where you can't watch just a few episodes - when you have to commit to watching literally every episode to get the story - then I just don't have the time or inclination to invest so much of my life in watching. It's why no matter how good they might be I will never be watching Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Game Of Thrones or any other series where I can't pull out a random episode and enjoy it on its own.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

I really liked Bob Newhart as a psychologist in The Bob Newhart Show. I never cared for his later show, Newhart, where he was an innkeeper, except for the ending of the last show.

quote:

Originally posted by tinman:
I really liked Bob Newhart as a psychologist in The Bob Newhart Show. I never cared for his later show, Newhart, where he was an innkeeper, except for the ending of the last show.

Another one that means nothing at all to me. Never as far as I know been shown in the Uk.

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Hmmm, I have never seen it, Geoff.

What is your favorite old TV show? Some of those old shows were so good, like St. Elsewhere.

Wasn't that the one with the totally stupid ending? The one where all the episodes of however many series there had been had taken place wholly within the mind of an autistic kid looking at a snowglobe with a model of a hospital in it? Never watched the series but the ending is infamous as one of the most hated series finales of all time. Up there with Quantum Leap and How I Met Your Mother.

ROFLMAO, bob! I never knew that, though I watched & enjoyed the series for years. I mus have checked out, satiated, before the final season...

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
Well, let's see. WKRP must have aired a few episodes in the Uk because I do remember seeing it but maybe it was on a cable channel. Taxi and Cheers both aired regularly and I enjoyed both though Taxi was more in line with my sense of humour. Barney Miller and Andy Griffith mean nothing to me at all. Of the British ones Waiting For God left me cold and Monty Python I liked at the time but it hasn't aged well. Let me think of some really old ones - not as easy it it should be as a lot of the older shows have aged very badly. Steptoe and Son was pretty funny but has some racist and sexist elements that sit badly now. Dad's Army was a favourite that is as good now as it ever was. Hancock's Half Hour was good but better on the radio. Most of the others that I can remember either weren't actually very good or couldn't be made nowadays because their content would be offensive.

Well I totally take umbrage at the idea that Monty Python has not aged well! Perhaps your sense of humor has not aged well! My CHILDREN enjoyed it as much as we did! [As well as Fawlty Halls, a close runner-up.] Few US shows have aged as well, & I include Taxi an Cheers in that category. [Barney Miller & Andy Griffeth, sorry. pfaah.] IMHO the only US show that stands up to repeated watching over the decades is Seinfeld.

quote:

Originally posted by tinman:
I liked WKRP in Cinncinnati, Barney Miller, and of course, The Andy Griffith Show. Those who were Andy Griffith fans, like I was, might like to watch "A Face in the Crowd," his 1957 debut film.

Totally agree, tinman, A Face in the Crowd was killer, and shows his amazing acting chops. I liked him in the Andy Griffith show, he totally created a unique character... it just wasn't my cup of tea over the long haul. I felt Matlock was a boring sort of retirement gig for him...

I stand by my opinion on Monty Python. I recently watched a few episodes again and while the best sketches are as brilliant as they ever were, when I watch a full episode there are too many bits between the best sketches where I just don't think they are all that funny. As time went on the ratio got worse and the final series is a poor pale imitation of the earlier ones. Of course the Monty Python movies are still a crunchy frog delight.

quote:

Originally posted by tinman:
I never cared for his later show, Newhart, where he was an innkeeper, except for the ending of the last show.

I thought that Larry, Darrel and Darrel were sometimes hilarious.

Yes, Geoff. I agree!

A comedian and prolific sketch writer that is almost certainly unheard of in the USA died last week. His name was Barry Cryer. I bring him up because I googled him to find out how old he was and when the hits came up the first hit ended with two lines that I am sure would have amused him.

"Notable Works - I'm Sorry I Haven't A...
Career, Personal Life, Bibliography"

RIP

Linguistically this season of The Apprentice is proving a bit disappointing. There was one word that I didn't know - arancini - (cross-threading, the singular is technically arancinu or arancina but like all these words in English the plural form is always used.)

It's a kind of meat filled fried rice ball dish.

My question is this. If you were a contestant on The Apprentice and the task was to use fish your team mates had caught to prepare and cook food to sell at a farmers' market would you

a) choose something that has a minimum preparation time and can be cooked easily and quickly on site to try to maximise your overall sales

or b) choose something that most of the people there have never heard of which takes hours to cook (two to three hours according to wikipedia) and then sell it at a very high price to try to maximise individual item profit?

The other team did fish tacos which sold like - well sold like hot fish tacos if I want to be accurate. They sold a lot and won.

Strangely very few people wanted to pay a lot and wait a long time for a food they had probably never heard of. (One team member pushed hard for fish burgers but the team leader insisted on his arancini.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

Oh dear, oh dear. oh dear.

This week's task was to create a computer game. One team chose to make a game about saving animals on the polar icecap. Worthy but very, very boring. That's not the issue though. The issue is the name they chose which was intended to be Arctic Saviour. Sadly none of the big brains involved could spell Arctic so it came out on the game, the packaging and all the promotional material as Artic Saviour. At one point there was an exchange something like.

A: Have we spelled that right?
(Pause while they all look at the screen.)
B: S..A..V..I..O..U..R. Yes that's right.
A; Good. Looks great.

I blame the teachers.

The defence they wanted to use when trying to sell the idea was "Well nobody knows how to spell it anyway so we decided to use a common misspelling".
(That wasn't the only failure of the education system though. They also wanted to save penguins... which don't live in the Arctic - or even the Artic - they live in the Antarctic.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

Arctic is one word I can't imagine misspelling, unless of course you mispronounce it.

Whenever I think of The Apprentice I think of you-know-who.

I think that’s the problem. Quite a lot of people do mispronounce it. As for thinking of you know who, the program I am talking about is hosted by Alan Sugar.

Only a bit language related but in this week's episode their idea of "tacky" is seriously at odds with mine. They were designing a driverless vehicle. One team leader said at the outset that while they would design a "party vehicle" she didn't want it to be be "tacky". She was the one who designed the interior. It had a pink, purple and scarlet colour scheme, plush velour seats, a pink minifridge, a roof that was covered in sparkly lights and a disco Karaoke machine. If she doesn't think that's "tacky" I shudder to think what she thinks is.

Yep, that is tacky!

This one has cropped up before, probably also in the apprentice. Candidates examining food options for a corporate experience day they are creating...

"This is our lower end offer and this is the mid-end offer..."

(To be fair it was actually the caterer who said this though it was later repeated by Alan Sugar - the UK DT equivalent in case you have forgotten.)

Is there a high end offer?

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Is there a high end offer?

No, just those two.
A bit like how sliced bread comes in medium and thick sliced but there is nothing lower than medium.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Arctic is one word I can't imagine misspelling, unless of course you mispronounce it.

Isn't an arctic a semicircular facial twitch?

I am so gullible. I started searching for semicircular facial twitches and actually read a few good articles on them...

Sorry! I'm a real jerk! A myoclonic jerk.

Or maybe not a jerk? Just a yank.

A great April Fools Day joke, for sure. I am easy...