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Pat Myers's avatar

In case you were wondering about the photos: Substack gives us access to the Getty agency's otherwise pricey archive of both news photos and "creative" stock photos (ones created in a studio for use in advertising, etc.) and we chose a mix of wacky (i.e., the dog at the typewriter) and the sort of blank (e.g., two women looking at each other), to allow for a lot of variety and creativity.

A. The dog at the typewriter is "Petra, the Alsatian [German Shepherd] dog from the B.B.C's children's programme, 'Blue Peter' " in 1964. She is indeed described as answering her fan mail.

B. The bored-looking crowd is at an Australian real estate auction in 2005.

C. The "weird White guy" is yet another Australian photo, described as a "ratbag orator" in Sydney in 1979.

E. The men sharing a joke are actually at a funeral, though not Arnold Palmer's (as Steve Geist would have us think). It's of a local government official, Lord John Prescott, in Hull, England, earlier this year, and these people are British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (seen from the back) and husband Ed Balls (not clear which one he is), and Secretary of State for Defence,John Healey.

F. A stock photo.

G. Judith Kutasi, left, and Angel Blue in "Aida" at the Metropolitan Opera this past January.

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Pat Myers's avatar

Hi, everyone! I don't monitor the regular Q&A entry form, but I'll hang out for a while in the comments thread (and will check in during the rest of the day) to answer questions, hate mail, etc.

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