Health and Fitness Journal

While vacationing in Los Angeles I am struck by the real obsession here people display with all things relating to plastic surgery. Billboards, magazine ads, even car bumper stickers and motel signs make some allusions, witty or otherwise, to such things as “non-surgical nose jobs”; “discount rhinoplasty”; and even “drive-through cosmetic surgery.” Yes, the stereotype is true – everybody drives in L.A.

Understatement: People in L.A. care about how they look. Spoiler: Some of those whom you may least expect have had work done. I was floored to read that Lemmy, the leather-clad unwashed lead plunker of the world’s greatest rock and roll band, Motorhead, reveal in a local paper that he’d had his teeth replaced and kept his hair long in order to cover up signs of aging. “Best place in the world for teeth, L.A.” he said. His teeth did look good. From what I could see, at least.

The whole topic of looks and how far one should go in order to alter one’s natural appearance became fodder for our car conversation as my wife and two children drove around town seeing the sights. “Cameron Diaz is ugly,” said my ten-year-old daughter, Kyla. “She has a big nose, and her mouth looks like a UFO.” I hadn’t seen it before, but she was right.

My son David thought Arnold Schwarzenegger should have some work done on his looks too. “He has a bowling-pin head and a peanut butter face,” he remarked, when we passed a billboard with the California governor’s mug plastered on it. He was right, too. Why hadn’t I seen it before?