Posts Tagged ‘susan’

The Apprentice: Thank You Lord Sugar for the Confidence Booster

You, my fellow Americans, have no reason to feel intellectually inferior to our cousins across the pond. Having a British accent no longer signifies a greater intelligence, at least if the UK version of the Apprentice is anything to go by.

As evidence I offer last night’s episode which saw contestants challenged with setting up a fast food restaurant that would please the taste buds and, hypothetically, the pocketbooks of industry “experts”.

Tom and Helen chose a British-themed mini-pie eatery while Jim, Susan and Natasha went for trendy Mexican.

Lord Sugar says he wants to go into business with someone “with a brain”. Perhaps, after this recent display, he should consider forfeiting the final show while there is still time and send all four remaining candidates back to grammar school.

Below are just some of the factual whoppers that transpired last night. Obviously a failure to know some or all of this information is not an indication of how well a person will perform in business. But I certainly wouldn’t want any of these people as a Trivial Pursuit partner.

Tom and Helen: Believing Columbus was British.

Tom: Believing Columbus discovered potatoes in America.

Tom and Helen: Believing Shakespeare and Byron were contemporaries.

Tom: Mistaking the first name of navigator Sir Francis Drake with William Drake, who was actually a baseball player in the American Negro Leauge.

Jim, Susan and Natasha: Naming a Mexican restaurant Caraca’s.

Jim, Susan and Natasha: Coming up with the most basic Mexican stereotypes for their Mexican restaurant.

Jim: Stumbling repeatedly on the 60×7 multiplication equation.

Susan and Natasha: Not knowing what “el” stands for in Spanish. (OK, I realize Susan is only 21 and an immigrant from China, but still.)

Jim, Susan and Natasha: Characterizing maracas as a Mexican instrument when it is prevalent throughout other regions of Latin America.

In the end it was Natasha who found herself at the receiving end of Lord Sugar’s firing finger. Not to gloat too much, but we knew before the show even aired that this would be the result.