Age Is Just a Number; for Guys, It's 31

Most men have two ages, theorizes author Douglas Coupland of Generation X fame: "the age we really are, and the age we are in our heads," which he pegs at "about 31 or 32." Coupland explains in in Best Life magazine: "When middle-aged men look in the mirror they think, 'I'm sorry, but there's been a horrible mistake.'"

"The real me is tanned, throws Frisbees, and kayaks the Columbia River estuary without cracking a sweat,” writes Coupland, who's 46, just like James Gandofini and Michael J. Fox. And he wonders if we were meant to get old at all. Once, making it to 70 was a rare feat; now everyone does it. “Nobody thought of this a hundred years ago when they invented the high school reunion.” (More Generation X stories.)