"I didn't get old on purpose."

Recently, the "60 Minutes" curmudgeon, Andy Rooney, called "The Passion of the Christ" filmmaker Mel Gibson a "wacko."

He got 30,000 pieces of mail and email in response. It's the biggest viewer response ever to a segment on the CBS newsmagazine, which has been on the air since 1968, a spokesman said.

He read some of the mail on the air, including one letter that called him an "asinine, bottom-dwelling, numb-skulled, low-life, slimy, sickening, gutless, spineless, ignorant, pot-licking, cowardly pathetic little weasel."

Rooney, 85, noted that many of his critics took shots at his age. Even Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly said he was too old.

"That wasn't nice, Bill," he said. "I didn't get old on purpose. It just happened. If you're lucky, it could happen to you."

On a personal note, I love Andy Rooney's eyebrows (wild and wooly!) and I love that retort about his age.