Best thing I have read in ages. Louis Menand rocks on. And on.

As someone who spends a substantial amount time with the youth, I agree that pretty much everything is wasted on them. I know that I personally never really appreciated anything until I was 30. Not dance, the importance of intelligent conversation above everything, my liver, sun damage, wine nor the prostate as a means of getting what you want. I thought love affairs were opportunites to share fears and aspirations in a setting of mutual respect rather than an acrimonious battle where victors steal self esteem and leave an STD or two behind as an afterthought.

Ah yes, the things I should have known when I was wrinkle-free and still thought a pension was something one marries. Things like never trust a woman who wears too much eye make-up or who surrounds her workspace with photos of herself. Or a man who claims to love his wife.

We tolerate each other, is all. Anything else is fantasy.