Beg button

I use the beg button on this corner daily, crossing 124 Street along the north side of 102 Avenue. And … I hate it.

For two reasons.

The first reason is that it's a busy enough corner for an automatic "Walk" signal, so the button is an unnecessary annoyance.

Second reason, the beg button is hidden out of sight, so a person waiting for the light to change would miss even the presence of the button.

I guess it bothered someone else. This sign was stuck on the lightpole where the beg button should have been placed. The sign was removed after two days.

The possible good news is that this is a temporary setup because of some heavy construction on one of the corners. A tall apartment building is being built. Perhaps after the building is done, the signal lights will be reconfigured.

Note: Here's what the sign says.

"This walk light button is on the other side of the post behind you next to the bike path!

"(It needs to be pushed to activate the walk light.)

"If you think it should be moved closer to the actual cross walk, you should contact the City of Edmonton.

"The more people who call them the better chance of having something done."

Stock photo availability

Let's say I want to use a famous photo on my Facebook page or blog, and I am Google-looking randomly on the internet to see what's out there that I can use for "free."

The image search will certainly turn up some Getty images. Go to the link and the Getty Images page that looks kinda like this.

And covering part of the picture is always the Getty Tag.

It doesn't usually ruin the picture. Just gives obvious credit to where the picture came from. Who really owns it. Ownership on the Internet is a slippery thing.

Anyway, I was Googling myself the other day. Pause for silent shaming. And I turned up some art I did for the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper earlier in this century. And the images had Getty Tags!

Kinda made me feel special. My work costs as much to use as a photo of Marilyn Monroe!

Backstory: The Pioneer Press art department was encouraged to send copies of completed artwork to our owners (first Knight-Ridder, and then McClatchy) for the owners to put on their commercial sales sites. Occasionally, I would hear from friends and relatives around the country that one of my illustrations turned up in a far-flung newspaper. Apparently, whoever owned that batch of Pioneer Press illustrations has now sold them to Getty Images.

Note: The "Brain Child" illustration has some strange stuff on the bottom that looks like it doesn't belong in the illustration -- because it doesn't! I would often include extra bits for use in other places in the newspaper. For teaser graphics or for pull quotes. I would just toss them in for page designers to use if they wanted to. And so I included them in submissions to our owners. But they look kinda out of place here. Hopefully any person buying this illo knows how to cut apart the images.