Boston Herald columnist Margery Eagan thoroughly depressed me the other day when she wrote a column about a new “happiness” study which said that while women get older and marginalized by society, men get happier.

“By 41, the [University of Southern California] study says, men’s financial satisfaction exceeds ours,” Eagan wrote. “That’s because exhausted mother, I say, had to get on the mommy track (part-time) to keep up with carting children hither and yon. Daddy takes a hankering to his nubile Pilates instructor - a must workout, he says, for mental and cardiac health.”

“By 48,” she added, “men’s overall happiness exceeds ours, the study says. Why? Because husband, I say, has now married nubile Pilates instructor while his wife is dressing in layers - peeling them off and on - to cope with 24/7 hot flashes.”

Oy to the vey. (August 2008)