jannnaeiiinathe ! i Mi OD Ht a . | uy, |TA Gave the World... In addition to Hollywood, Los Angeles hes given us: Beach in Los Angeles in the 1970s. There are more than 12 milion skateboarders in ‘the world today. They have their own fashion, musle ‘and slang. ‘COSMETIC SURGERY Hollywood stars have always paid surgeons to make them Took young and beautiful, ‘When cosmetic surgery became cheaper, about 10 yeare ago, Los Angeles was the first placeit became really popular. Today there ‘are more cosmetic surgeons ‘per capita in LA than in any ‘other city. SURFING Nobody knows where surfing began. However, ‘many people think ff LA as the home of surfing culture. That's probably because they've ‘seen so many images of beach life in LA in the media, especially fn the famous TV show Baywatch. FORTUNE COOKIES In 1916, a noodle maker! ‘rom LA called David Jung started making cookies with messages inside them, which he called fortune cookies (Gelom, right). People say he thought ofthe idea to give positive messages to poor ‘men who couldn't find work. SKATEBOARDING ‘8.2008 film called Lords of Dostown tells the story of how the skateboarding ‘culture began on Venice ; Rd He nwreewer Beer giana eee ee od Fear ea company called Ripenet rade ro morhte fat electronic computer network in 1959. This year marks the 225th birthday of one of the world’s most remarkable cities: Los Angeles, or LA, as it's of- ten known According to the official version of events, the LA story began in 1781, at a time when California was still part of the Spanish Empire. On Sep- tember 4th of that year a group of “pobladores,” or settlers4, set out from the nearby San Gabriel Mission to found “El Pueblo de Nuestra Sefio- ra Reina de los Angeles sobre El Rio Porciuncula,” which means “The Town of Our Lady Queen of the An- gels on the Porciuncula River.” The pueblo changed nationality in 1821, when Mexico became independent, and again in 1847, when California became part of the United States. From these humble? origins, Los An- geles has become - along with its east coast rival, New York - one of the world's greatest cities. In the 20th century a Los Angeles suburb, Hollywood, gave us the film industry, while LA itself became the place where trends - everything from plas- tic surgery? to skateboarding — be- gan. In order to find out more about V seventeen 17hack east-da-costa | este camaa colonizagan dos EUA comocen pola costs Kes Pabeantes co costes reerem- S24 costa lets como mm rsterna is ones Space cadets (0) {0 draw sri 1 set fronds sabocen Star terdénees 2 sitcom will have 2 linen “umn setae comico lana un ordeal pia we spoke to Beth Deitchman, a jour- nalist who moved there from New York. She is one of the editors of the wy “NFT,” ot Not For Tourists Guide to Los Angeles. We began by asking her whether the world's impres- sion of Los An geles was accu- rate: Beth Deitchman (Standard ‘American accent) I think, to a large degree, people are in- fluenced by what they see in the media and, because Holly- N wood is based here, that tends to be the main image that people have. I mean, I think that a lot of people back east* think that people who live in LA are vegetarian, yoga fanatics, who are complete space cadets? and the more you live here, the more you realize that no, that’s a very small segment of LA. Definitely, there are those people who exist, but it's just an eclectic melting pot, at this point and what you really see when you first get to LA is how many people are from oth- er places. I think I'd lived here for four or five years before I realized that I had a lot of friends who were actually native Angetinos, which... when you first move here, you tend to gravitate toward other people who are new to the city and LA is one of ‘those places that draws® people from elsewhere. PARIS HILTO! But does Los Angeles continue to set trends?? Both Deitchman: I think that it does continue to set= bil oe Hot ) trends with respect to things like fashion or pop culture references. I mean, a sitcom will have a line? that suddenly becomes a catchphrase? that's part of the American vernacu- lar, Or Paris Hilton will be pho- tographed wearing a certain kind of dress and it turns up! in InStyle magazine and suddenly people all over the country are dressing like that. So it definitely continues to set trends on that level. I don’t know that we've had a sweeping seminal change lately! in how the rest of the world lives. LA was the home of the skateboard culture and surfing and we haven't really created a new sport any time in the last couple of decades, but definitely it still con- tinues to have 2 huge influence on the rest of the nation. CAR CULTURE In conclusion, we asked Beth Deitchman what she personally liked about LA Beth Deitchman: T love like big ideas about the city. I love that it’s a car culture. I like the fact that T can have almost the entire contents of my house#2 in my car and they're there wherever Igo. I love the weather. LA gets : slammed# for the perfect sunny weather, 72 degrees#4, year round, | (ros Angeles &s aR. (ceva chan) eS but I actually like that. And there: is a change of seasons, it’s just really subtle, You don’t get the changing of the leavesi#, You don’t get a real Christmas of the air, but you can’t beat the weathertZ, I got married in November and I was able to plan an outdoor wedding because I knew it wasn't going to rain! And you don’t have that luxury elsewhere. And people just seem more relaxed out here. It’s probably the fact that the weather is nice and it is a pleasant place to live and we don’t have to climb up and down subway steps!® and stand elbow to elbow with people®? on our way to and from work and it just makes people a little bit more relaxed. 2 (Mos Angel [vou're older'ihas, resto 48 8 v 18 oWre 35, buildings.» catchphrase nes Sereeess gus tose ‘omega a Use iRtums up apace dont know that Seminal change ibtely rao sase ater the entire contonts ‘of my house tudoo aletetoem cma IEA gets slammed lis Angeles @ muta malas Ta degrees 22 aus Ccous Subtle sul feaves -fohas. you cant beat the Weather -2 0 melhor Cima quo edto Wwe don’t have to Weecor eseadac do meta, Stand elbow to tbow with people — ficarespremido entre ee reccaas