Sign language interpreter Lydia Callis upstages New York mayor

yahoo ^ | Oct. 30, 2012 | Matthew Coutts

[george76]

She is either taking a subversive jab at the mayor of New York or is extremely passionate about the recovery efforts following Hurricane Sandy.

Either way, Lydia Callis is now the world's most talked-about sign language interpreter.

Callis has captured countless hearts and minds with her animated translations of press conferences on hurricane Sandy and its fallout, rolling her eyes and puffing out her cheeks as she stands next to the stone-faced Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

She sends the message with her hands. But she tells the story with her face.

...

Bloomberg has realized he is at least being upstaged

[Leep]

I’m not sure but I might be in love..:)

[WVKayaker]

Thanks so much for the visual!

In this case, a picture is worth... well, it's priceless!

[Albion Wilde]

That post should rate an FR Hall of Fame....

[ShasheMac]

Be understanding. She was hyped on caffeine from that super-large soda she’d just bought at 7-11.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

So that is what she is a sign language “person.” I thought it was someone having a fit.

[KarlInOhio]

She’s as fast as he can talk too. Fascinating.

It is funny to watch the sign language interpreter try to keep up, especially if the speaker is using lots of words outside of the ASL vocabulary. I saw the Capitol Steps once and they were using a local sign language interpreter who wasn't familiar with their performance, especially the "Lirty Dies" routine where a lot of the humor is switching letters is words so the signer has to spell them out. Part way through the performer stopped, looked at the signer and said something like "I think her fingers just fell off". The crowd laughed and she then had to sign that joke too.

[JohnG45]

Thanks for posting a little bit of the video.

I watched the original with the sound off and it is absolutely hilarious. Without the sound, she seems to be describing a sexual experience that went bad.

[PapaBear3625]

With respect to the hearing impaired, this is over-the-top political correctness run amok. Most if not all deaf viewers have closed-captioning.

It's just a stupid politically-correct gesture. Just put a text crawl on the screen in case the watcher does not have closed captioning.

[yoe]

The legal recognition of sign languages is one of the major concerns of the international Deaf community. There is no standard way in which such a recognition can be formally or legally extended; every country has its own interpretation. In some countries, the national sign language is an official state language, whereas in others it has a protected status in certain areas such as education. However, symbolic recognition is no guarantee for an effective improvement of the life of sign language users. Sarah Batterbury has argued that sign languages should be recognized and supported not merely as an accommodation for the disabled, but as the communication medium of language communities

For the uninitiated (Sign Language) as a recognized language.

[wideawake]

Are you kidding? The true comedy starts when Bloomberg commits felonious assault on the Spanish language.

[samson1097]

There was a very funny scene in Spin City where something similar happened:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO3c6_BT3HM

[Prov1322]

This woman is great, but let’s face it...a potted plant could upstage Doomberg.

[toast]

I don’t know sign language, but going by the poster’s name I believe I know what he is saying.

[LibFreeUSA]

"I Love New York"...

[EinNYC]

Whenever Doomberg tries to be soooo PC and murder the Spanish language, I just go “La-la-la-la-la” loud enough to drown him out until the danger is over. It’s the English stuff he blathers that is the true danger, however. He really thinks he has some sort of corner on the brains market. He actually (I am NOT kidding) initially expected NYC employees, if they could not get to their regular job place, to go somewhere else to “see if they could help.” Yeah, I was gonna be the first in line to kiss Doomberg butt and endanger my life getting to a place to do scutwork which could wait for safer conditions. We didn’t hear about this nonsense again once the imbecile finally absorbed the true danger of the storm.

[JimC214]

This is almost as funny as the recent Neil Young clip on You Tube. It’s of Young performing at a concert and there is a woman signing to the audience the lyrics to the song that is being played.

[ßuddaßudd]

She’s got boinkability . . .
¡caliente!

[ßuddaßudd]

She’s got boinkability . . .
¡caliente!

[KosmicKitty]

I saw her with Bloomie last night. She was good!!

[acw011]

Glad I’m not the only one to notice this - I sorta felt bad last night watching this bcuz I was in tears laughing so hard.. my wife walked in wondering what was so funny and I said it looks like she’s making fun of him!