YUPPIES

Regarding “The Perfect Fall Guys” (Dec. 13): Delia Ephron’s highly idiosyncratic definition of yuppie , which limits the term to people in their 20s, and her attempt to distinguish yuppies from the ‘60s generation are both nonsense. Ephron writes of the ‘60s generation: “We made gigantic mistakes--dropped out on drugs, joined communes. . . . Like everyone else I knew, I was part of the anti-war movement. . . . We all slept on mattresses on the floor, bought clothes at Army surplus.”

What world was she living in? Ephron’s use of we is an absurd generalization, a projection from her small, radical milieu onto a much larger and different reality. The campus left constituted a world unto itself back then, and Ephron demonstrates that its adherents still do--and that they remain as ludicrously self-absorbed as the worst yuppies.

BRUCE J. SCHNEIDER

Irvine