HOPE SPRINGS NOCTURNAL
Regarding Mary Tannen's article (Style: "Hope Springs Nocturnal," Nov. 5), it's interesting how time, "the subtle thief of youth," has changed baby-boomer  vocabulary.
When I was young, "free radicals" could have been a youth-culture slogan calling for the liberation of the Chicago Seven, or a fitting description of young student protesters. Now the presence of free radicals means we're getting  old.
Perhaps those of us who once embraced the youth culture are facing the fact  that basing a culture on youth is like building a house on shifting sand. Culture lasts; youth does not. We can't erase that fact any more than we can erase our wrinkles.
CLARE HIGGINS Hastings, N.Y.