Mary Novaria

Listen up fellas, partners and creatively-challenged gift givers! There’s just a few hours left to redeem yourself and come up with something that won’t force your significant other into an Oscar-worthy performance when he/she opens your present on Christmas morning.    I hate to generalize and say more men than women have a problem selecting thoughtful and loving gifts, but the evidence points in that direction. The facts also suggest that men and women disagree on what is a thoughtful gift. An informal poll of friends and acquaintances around the country turned up a surprising number of auto-related gifts under the tree, including a gas can (Ohio), windshield wipers (Kansas) and a hurricane survival kit (Florida). One of those givers shared this logic with his wife: “You spend so much time in your car alone and I just want you to be safe.” Okay, so those auto gifts are thoughtful in a way… but that kind of thoughtfulness, as one receiver so well put it, is more appreci...

My romance with LA has hit a rough patch. The affair’s not over, but I’m taking a little break to lick my wounds after yesterday’s abuse. You probably won’t be shocked to learn it involved The Freeway. Traffic is something that’s just part of the lifestyle here, which is one of the reasons we chose to live in a neighborhood where we can walk to just about everything, which I do, frequently with my little-old-lady shopping cart in tow. I’m not afraid of the freeways, I drive on them when I have to. I just don’t happen to like that aspect of the rat race.   Yesterday morning it had taken me only 35 minutes or so to get to the area called La Crescenta-Montrose, a picturesque community tucked in the hills about 30 miles north of Downtown. Little did I know when I left there at 2:15, it would be about three hours before I got home, and it wasn’t even rush hour. (There’s an oxymoron for you. Nothing rushed about it except, maybe, fury.) Courtesy of LAist.com Coming in...

The following piece of mine appeared in the Huffington Post Religion section on December 6, 2012 8:07 PM  –  12/ 6/2012 Preparing My Heart for the Birth of Christ -- An Advent Reflection I saw firsthand today the goodness in people, which tends to happen if I stop thinking about myself and pay attention. What I saw today was exactly what Jesus would have done and it helped me re-form my Advent intention. I was walking in the park with my dog, Bella, as we do most days. We passed an old man, sleeping in the grass, which isn’t unusual in our city, where there is a sizable population of homeless people. The man was roused by the beep-beep of a horn as an SUV pulled up along the curb by the park. The two people in the car beckoned the old man to come over. As he approached, the passenger reached out and handed him one of those white, Styrofoam carryout containers, a sizable one, perhaps the only meal the old man would have this day.  And then they drove off...