Real Angelenos don't fawn over celebrities

Times columnist Hector Tobar offers his "guidelines" for qualifying as a real Angeleno, among them don't fawn over celebs, use your turn signals, barbecue a lot, drive to walk in the outdoors, be cool with ethnic diversity, appreciate Vin Scully and know your shortcuts. Being born here is not on the list:

You don't have to be a native to be a real Angeleno. The German playwright Bertolt Brecht, driven into exile by the Nazis, became a real Angeleno during the six years he lived here.

Brecht lived in a home with pepper and fig trees and enjoyed backyard parties with his friends, definitely real Angeleno behavior. What's more, he appreciated our city's unusual ethnic balance and its physical landscape, which at first seemed alien to his European eyes.

"The oil derricks and the thirsty gardens of Los Angeles/ and the ravines of California at evening and the fruit market," he once wrote, "did not leave the messenger of misfortune unmoved."