Mary Kalfatovic is right about Letterman's specific appeal to aging baby boomers about "it's hip to be square," but that doesn't factor in his incredible popularity not just with college kids, but as CBS demographers proudly note--women of all ages. I'm surprised to discover how many people I know in their fifties (and older) who now watch him regularly since he's come on at 11:30. Like all the best hosts in that time period, he combines an impish charm and a sly wit that now seems (unlike his foray at 12:30) to reach everybody. Compare him to the pathetic Leno, and you'll recognize that Dave has been transformed into a true TV personality, like Benny, like Carson, and only a few others, who literally define the popular culture spirit in a few important way. Re your question regarding Saturday Night Live--the show has always been targeted at young men in the teens to lower 20s (its producer Lorne Michaels is the first to admit this) which is why, perhaps, as we (uh-hmm) AGE its humor seems progressively more retrograde and juvenile. Perhaps an apt comparison would be the readership of MAD magazine, which also outgrows what once seemed the emblem of cutting edge humor. Brian Rose Fordham University