"For the doctor behind Happy Foot Sad Foot sign, a strange kind of fame comes to an end

LATimes:

Over the last four decades, the Happy Foot Sad Foot sign at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Benton Way has become the neighborhood’s mascot and mood ring.

The more mystical residents of Echo Park swear the sign works like a giant rotating fortune cookie or tarot card. If you see the sign on its happy side, you’ll have a good day, and if you see the sad side, you’ll have a bad day.

...

It’s one of those uniquely Los Angeles landmarks that begin life as objects of revulsion or disdain, then become ironically celebrated by a later generation of residents and are eventually anointed as fondly, iconically weird by another.

...

A lot of people are shocked to discover that the sign is associated with an actual foot clinic. But a Los Angeles Football Club fan collective has adopted Lim’s sign as a mascot, and recently he noticed that a store down the street is selling T-shirts with the sign’s image.

*Previously: "Billiken backlash: SLU will redesign mascot again"