Reply #10: I read your post with a mounting sense of outrage

[ima_sinnic]

how can people be so fucking cruel and inhuman--and why WOULDN'T he want the best person, rather than the "youngest"?

the guy was obviously an a-hole, and as noted upthread, you would not have liked working for him. This was just not meant to be.
please don't give up. My brother (age 55) is in the same field & has managed to carve out a small niche as a Web developer, but I know he has had some dry spells--but there are people everywhere (myself included) who work for themselves, and that number is growing as more and more become unemployed, and they need web sites (is that what you do? sorry if I misunderstand here). Somehow you need to figure out how to make yourself known to them, it may take some creative thinking (sorry if that sounds lame, this is not my field at all).