LONDON There’s a new catchphrase in London: Are you a skier? And it has nothing to do with winter sports. It’s a quasi-acronym for Are You Spending the Kids’ Inheritance? In the age of celebrity culture and instant news, cash is not the only fast currency. Former pillars of the establishment are shorting their Reputation, too.

It’s been an unsettling few months for women of a certain age. Between the flameouts of Judy Miller and Harriet Miers, the frantic reentry of Martha Stewart and the sight of former CBS News producer Mary Mapes shaking her gored locks on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” everywhere you turn there’s a power woman either in extremis or declaring she’s indestructible, which are usually the same thing.

Most people don’t have to wait till the age of 56 to come into their own, but you can’t help feeling that the Prince of Wales has finally caught up with the zeitgeist. Or maybe it’s the zeitgeist that’s caught up with him.