17. Suburban sluttery

     

         Updikes's Couples is still the shocking vision of '60s

         suburban sluttery, the raw imperfection of the 

         world in its stark nakedity.

16. Industrial quantities

       Updike's character is vulgarian, a crass, priapic lower bourgeois 

       who gobbles up whatever pleasures America offers

       him--sex, gun, drugs and glof--in such industrial quantities

       that may almost make him happy. 

15. Iconic overkill

      Dubai is the last word in iconic overkill, a place of egotism with humanity denied.

14. Cult of hyper mobility

     

      Detroit is a city fueled by the cult of hyper mobility.

13. Dubious monument

   

      “Dubai is a dubious monument to big-must-be-beautiful. It is a city designed by autocrats            and architects”. [Source: The Hindu, March 21, 2009]

12. Culture of brokeness

   A lot of young Americans grew up in a culture of brokeness, 

    divorce and drugs.

   

11. Architectural reticence

   

   The premises of the Gulin Swiming Association on the west bank of

   Li River [China] is the epitome of architectural reticence.

10. Convolution of adolescent craving

       Jihad has become a convolution of the adolescent craving 

        to stand out in an Islamic society

9. Acerbic dig

     The playwright takes an acerbic dig at British politics

8. Eerily familiar

       The characters in his plays often seem eerily familiar.

7. Silver-haired

The audience was silver-haired and well-heeled

6. Tantalizingly close

The good life [to the poor

 in Pakistani villages] is tantalizingly close, 

yet for most residents 

still unattainable

5. Innately green

Denmark is innately green, with the kind of Scandinavian good conscience that has made it such a pleasant global citizen…

 

4. Unconquerable gladness

The U.S. has a president who will lead the way forward with unconquerable gladness of a man invigorated by the tasks before him.

[Source: Time March 9, 2009]

 

 

3.Clueless extravagance

3. Clueless extravagance

The millions of dollars spent on someone else’s art work is just another example of clueless extravagance in an age of thrift.

2. Economy’s undertow

Obama , in presenting his mortgage plan, promised to distinguish between the sinners and those unlucky bystanders dragged down by the economy’s undertow.

1.Hardscrabble village

1.           

       Hardscrabble/Adjective/ American English/not having enough of the basic things one  needs to  live.

   Faridkot is not the hardscrabble village conjured up by          common perceptions of extremist origins.                                          [Source: Time  March 16, 2009]