Business jargon

[marathondan]

One I hadn't heard before, in this morning's epistle from senior management...

These formal discussions supplement... blah blah blah. They also help ensure the top four goals for each of your team members are truly needle movers, and... blah blah blah.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

WTF??

[Sweder]

One I hadn't heard before, in this morning's epistle from senior management...

These formal discussions supplement... blah blah blah. They also help ensure the top four goals for each of your team members are truly needle movers, and... blah blah blah.

I think you'll find they've lifted that straight out of The Wire

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

One I hadn't heard before, in this morning's epistle from senior management...

These formal discussions supplement... blah blah blah. They also help ensure the top four goals for each of your team members are truly needle movers, and... blah blah blah.

I think you'll find they've lifted that straight out of The Wire

Having no idea what "The Wire" is (well OK, I have some vague notion that it might be a TV programme of some kind), I am still at a loss.

Please enlighten this cultural ignoramus.

[Sweder]

Would happily offer a synopsys but am up to my eyes in cranes and big trucks.
EG is your man. Nutshell: five series of unsurpassed, drug-crime-related televisual excellence.

[El Gordo]

Hmm, "needle mover" is a new one on me too. I presume the metaphor relates to a gauge of the traditional kind.

I don't remember it being used in The Wire, but I'll defer to Sweder's greater experience (I've watched only the first 3 series, and didn't realise -- or had forgotten -- that there were more). Mind you, given the subject matter of The Wire, I might have expected the reference to be to a different sort of needle.

But yes, The Wire is very great television and should be on the "must see" list of anyone who enjoys vanishing for a few weeks into a boxed set (or box set -- wars have been started over that one), along with Breaking Bad and The Killing (Danish version).

Coming back to needle mover, that does seem like a particularly useless addition to the management lexicon, and therefore I'm delighted to be told about it.

Now that I've been exposed to it, I suspect I'll start hearing it everywhere. It's odd how that happens. Last night, when watching the football, I heard Phil Neville refer to a player's legs as "levers", which I'd not come across before. But blow me, when I turned over shortly afterwards to see what was happening at Wimbledon, I found the commentators chatting about a very tall ball boy (7 ft 1), and one of them referred to the amazing "length of his levers". And then on the Radio 4 sports news this morning, yet another use of the word to describe someone's legs (can't recall the context).

When chatting to a colleague this morning I came across one of those wonderful German portmanteau words that have no parallel in English (e.g. schadenfreude). The erudite Tom Roper would no doubt be aware of "weltschmerz" but it was new to me. Literally "world pain", weltschmerz, according to dictionary.com, means something more than its literal translation:

"...this melancholy word conveys more than its simple portmanteau roots; the concept, coined by Jean Paul Richter, refers to the 'sorrow that one feels and accepts as one's necessary portion in life,' describing a state in which a person feels that their physical reality will never be as beautiful or blissful as the world they can imagine in their head."

A concept with which long-suffering England football supporters will be spectacularly familiar.

[marathondan]

Agreed, needle mover doesn't really add value. Indeed, it's not fit for purpose, and brings nothing to the table. Certainly not a game-changer.

Anyway, I'll look out for levers. I was about to remark on the irony that legs aren't actually levers at all, but a quick look at the sum total of all humanity's knowledge Wikipedia reveals that actually, the upper and lower parts of the leg can indeed be regarded as Class 3 levers. Phil Neville was obviously paying attention in GCSE science.

[Sweder]

I've heard 'levers' ascribed to long arms before, but not legs. Phil Neville, despite his baffling debut as a staccato, caffeine-fuelled summariser, is a bright lad.

'Needle mover' as referred to in the Wire does indeed refer to purveyors of heroin delivery systems. It appears only once or twice. Series 4 and 5 are superb, EG. I think you'll enjoy them all the more for the prominence of Tommy Carcetti, the wanna-be white Mayor, and his political manoeuvrings. I'd happily watch the whole things again. Breaking Bad is fabulous. Mrs S and I have devoured the first four series in as many weeks. We're now testing our marriage during a two week (work/ travel induced) separation. If she watches so much as a second of series five without me, I'll know.

[El Gordo]

Breaking Bad is fabulous. Mrs S and I have devoured the first four series in as many weeks. We're now testing our marriage during a two week (work/ travel induced) separation. If she watches so much as a second of series five without me, I'll know.

Breaking Bad is one heck of a trek across so many different landscapes. Anyone here who hasn't indulged should immediately book a week off work and get stuck into the first of the 63 episodes, which turns out to be more addictive than blue meth itself. I envy people who haven't yet experienced it.

All 5 seasons are superb. The final one has a slightly different atmosphere, as certain people were disposed of during Season 4, but it's still brilliant.

[The Beast of Bevendean]

Indeed, though I always thought it was Goethe who coined the word. Excuse me while I find my yellow waistcoat.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Tom, your intellect is frightening. Pray, enlighten a humble, ignorant colonial.

[marathondan]

'Needle mover' as referred to in the Wire does indeed refer to purveyors of heroin delivery systems.

OK... I don't think our senior management regards that as one of the company's core behaviours.

I've no idea what word Tom is referring to.

[The Beast of Bevendean]

Weltschmerz. See El Gordo above

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Anyone here who hasn't indulged should immediately book a week off work and get stuck into the first of the 63 episodes, which turns out to be more addictive than blue meth itself. I envy people who haven't yet experienced it.

Hate to disappoint, but after hearing the Breaking Bad author speak at the recent Sydney Writers' Festival, I was intrigued enough to actually attempt watching episode 1 of series 1, of which I found a squillion copies on YouTube.

I say "attempted", because after less than eight minutes I gave up, finding it far too depressing and "too Hollywood" for my taste.

Interestingly, the author mentioned the whole Hollywood thing in his talk, saying how the first major TV network he showed it too were over the moon with it and wanted to sign him up immediately, only to be shouted down by the network's senior execs who wanted it to be about "anything other" than meth production. To his credit, whats-his-name declined to change the script and so he moved on to ... wherever it was he moved on to. HBO, or whatever. I don't understand such things.

Whatever, I still found it unwatchable. I'm afraid popularity is not universal.

Thank God! Imagine how dull life would be if we all liked the same things?

[El Gordo]

Not sure what being "too Hollywood" means, MLCMM, but I would respectfully submit that 8 minutes out of around 55 hours may not be a good enough sample to make a proper judgment.

That said, it doesn't matter. I watched it, and am very glad I did. For me, totally exhilarating.

[Charliecat5]

I thought 'needle movers' had something to do with knitting? No?

[Sweder]

I did the haughty 'oh, everyone's talking about Breaking Bad? Shan't watch it, then' thing when the series first ran. Bereft of Forbrydelsen's Lund and the understated excellence of The Bridge, I buckled last month. BB is all it's cracked up to be for me, the Mrs and her Mum, who, despite tutting through the occasional flash of shocking violence, loves the series. When the third episode per night finishes and I shut down Netflix, they both wail 'oh! just one more!'

If by 'Hollywood' you mean 'American', I fear you may not enjoy the Wire, either.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

I'm more a 'radio' person really, if you're talking electric arts.

Look I'm not just rebelling against popularity - I just don't have the patience for watching an entire TV series. These days I struggle to even watch a full day of cricket. I'm just getting grumpier and more impatient as I get older.

Somebody slap me.

[El Gordo]

I thought 'needle movers' had something to do with knitting? No?

Hmm, interesting. Well, i suppose it's possible that a guerilla knitting gang was operating under the radar in that Baltimore housing project

[El Gordo]

......When the third episode per night finishes and I shut down Netflix, they both wail 'oh! just one more!'

I must have spoken to at least a dozen people who have watched the entire thing and this is a common discussion point. At what point do you throw in the towel and reluctantly creep off to bed? My conservative Swiss colleague opined that 2 was the ideal number, but for the rest of us, 3 was the optimum. Or at least the target. I watched the first three series with M in CH, and there was one Saturday night when I think we ended up doing 7 in a row, before retiring at about 4am. I had to watch the last two series on my own after she went back to Blighty -- something I've not yet been forgiven for. But you can't expect a junkie to stare at a full syringe for 4 weeks while waiting for his mate to reappear.