I moved away from Los Angeles for the second time last year for the flat steam room that is South Florida. In my time away from my hometown, I noticed a number of slice-of-life encounters in L.A that I took for granted and that are missing from my everyday new life.

For those of you who plan to move to hell-ay, as one gossip columnist so often refers to it, be prepared to stumble upon the following on a regular basis. And for those of you who escaped L.A., these may be good or bad nostalgic items that may reaffirm why you left too.

1. Pigeons
Yeah, I know, major cities are plagued with these rats-with-wings, and Los Angeles is no different. I was always amused by the suicidal ones, who seemingly waited until you were >thisclose< and then decide to zoom across the front of your windshield. Also, never a week went by where my car was not baptized by some new splat of feces, even if I parked in enclosed garages. You will never fail to hear the guttural coos of pigeons when you leave a building. I think they are the only reason people in Los Angeles should carry umbrellas.

2. Hybrid cars
It is odd to me that when I walk through the parking lot at my current job, I am surrounded by about 100 cars, and only two (two!) are hybrid cars. Go into any parking lot in middle to upper-middle-class Los Angeles, and the percentage rate of finding hybrid cars is more like 15-30 percent.
Now this is a plus, I will note, because too many cars and trucks already congest the freeways and stink up the place. I would know because for the last seven years I drove in Los Angeles, I owned a convertible. Between the pigeons and the smog, it should be no surprise that I kept the top up more often than down.

3. Movie billboards
L.A. is an entertainment town, and said entertainment town just loves to promote itself. Everywhere you turn checkout lanes, high rises, bathroom stalls, bus stops, mall banners be prepared to have your eyes accosted by a ten-foot image of the latest hot thing to emerge on the big screen, seducing you to spend $10 for a couple of hours of mindless action at the local cineplex.
Don't get me wrong. Billboards stand up and trumpet their messages along the I-95 and the Turnpike, but they tend to be for new condo developments and hospitals and the FL lottery (which tells you a lot about the age of most residents here). I just can't remember the last time I saw a movie poster.

4. Celebrities
Last month, the designer Elie Tahari had a party

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