Mike: re your exegesis of "the best years": I agree -- the irony is in the way a statement so bleak (in one sense) tends to get thrown about with almost a sense of self-congratulation. It's extremely reasonable, not to say philosophical to point out the alternate interpretation of the statement's intent: to suggest that the teenage life of our ourselves and our peers was characterized by an appealing balance of indolence, financial support, and the liberty to do all sorts of ostensibly bad and wrong things, so long as you didn't wreck the car or get pregnant.

Still, the guy was a nitwit.