NY "London" Times...on aging and national stereotypes... (Or, Europe as an allegory on aging)

...on the way home from work today, I stopped for a cup of coffee...
Leafing through a prior drinker's left-behind New York Times, I came across the editorial page's presentation of sayings and conceptions about aging,
including this blurb, taken from The Times of London this past July:

"I've often thought that Europe is an allegory for the ages of man.
You're born ITALIAN. They're relentlessly infantile and mother-obsessed.
In childhood, we're ENGLISH: chronically shy, tongue-tied, cliquey, and only happy kicking balls, pulling the legs off things or sending someone to Coventry.
Teenagers are FRENCH: pretentiously philosophical, embarrassingly vain, ridiculously romantic and insincere.
Then,in middle age, we become either SWISS or IRISH.
Old age is GERMAN: ponderous, pompous and pedantic.
Then finally we regress into being BELGIAN, with no idea who we are at all."

(found on the editorial page of the New York Times, 19 Oct., 2009)

My apologies, condolences, and 'appreciation' to all who resent and/or resemble these remarks...