When they’re young, they seem naive, perceptive, and non-confrontational — “nice”; they don’t rock the boat, and seem too timid, almost, to act rude. By their mid-30s, though, they’ve developed some very definite ideas about people and other things, and they’ll murmur irreverent thoughts to their friends. By their mid-40s it’s difficult for them to restrain themselves from mentioning these impressions. Then as they age further (and especially once they retire) they just stop caring, and they delight to deluge strangers with an endless stream of opinions about the world.