MBE generation
n.— «English cricket isn’t always in tune with the times, but it seems to have caught the wave of the “me-me” generation pretty sweetly. It even has its own name for it—the MBE generation, an exclusive club whose members are pretty much allowed to call their own shots. If you got a gong for winning the Ashes in 2005, you are in it. It is okay, each MBE (Me Before England) is told. You are a superstar. You beat the Aussies. Tell us when you are fit to play, if indeed you want to play. We know you may be busy drinking at the well of celebrity, writing your next platitudinous book, staging your next benefit function. Just give us a shout when you are ready.» —“Losing their heads” by Simon WIlde Times (London, England) Dec. 31, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
How do you transform ancient Chinese script for use in the modern age? English uses a keyboard with just 26 letters, but the first Chinese typewriter looked like a small table under a huge disk with more than 4,000 characters. A new book chronicles...
Novelist Charles Dickens and the musician Prince were very different types of artists, but they also had a lot in common. A new book chronicling their extraordinary careers becomes a larger meditation on perfectionism and creativity itself. Plus...