They Also Discuss Sex, Politics, and Religion

Finally--an upstanding East Coast publication like the New York Times (okay, their T:Style magazine) has provided a thoughtful primer on appropriate dinner conversation in that uncivilized western burg of Los Angeles.

If you can believe this—and you, the ever proper and demure New Yorker, probably can’t--Angelenos discuss plastic surgery!  At dinner!  However would they function here in a real city, where we discuss Taiwanese poetry and the proposed Iraqi constitution and the symphony at dinner, and never, ever discuss plastic surgery or celebrity gossip of any kind?  In fact, there aren’t even any plastic surgeons in New York.  We don’t do such vulgar things here—we may swear on the street and press our bodies against each other on subways, but fix our noses? Have a mini-lift?  God, no. 

Also, Nell Scovell, a tip for you from a born-and-bred Angeleno (yes, we admit it). You’ve directed your pointers to “those who live east of the 405”; while that does include New Yorkers and most of Los Angeles, it also includes Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, and the Hollywood Hills, neighborhoods where we’re pretty sure they know their plastic surgery.  Just thought you’d like to know--it might come up the next time you’re at dinner.