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

[allmendream]

http://lydiacalasface.tumblr.com/

[COBOL2Java]

Oh give me a break. I’m a Sign Language Interpreter and I just watched her. I think she did a great job.

[Mercat]

I loved her. But she doesn’t sign Spanish. LOL I can’t wait for the spoofs on this. Sort of could be like the Hitler learns series.

[21twelve]

I was pretty pissed when Bloomberg didn’t give the 911 announcement in Russian, Chinese and Austrian.

[red devil 40]

“She’s got them moves like Jagger.

I was LOL watching her last night.

She looked like a third base coach on steroids giving out signs to steal all four bases....”

Like a coon dog Sh!ttin’ Tacks......

[MCH]

Interesting. During the local Hurricane Sandy coverage here in Maryland, we were "treated" to news conferences every couple of hours by Governor O'Malley the tax king. He had a fairly animated sign language interpreter at his televised events as well, although I don't know her name. See picture below.

It became obvious when we watched her that every so often during her animated signing sessions her eyes would suddenly get HUGE, at which time everyone in my family would jump back and exclaim "WHOAA!" It was sort of frightening - great stuff for Halloween. Kind of like a monster jumping out at you or the subliminal screen flash at the end of the intro to Grimm, in terms of shock value. Needless to say we were much more entertained by the signer lady than by O'Malley. I found a still shot on a news page where they caught her in one of her startling "big eyes" moments.

[GeronL]

Can’t deaf people just read subtitles/ closed captioning? I suppose it wouldn’t be as entertaining

[MCH]

Can’t deaf people just read subtitles/ closed captioning? I suppose it wouldn’t be as entertaining.

Yeah, I guess it adds the personal touch, and it's certainly more entertaining.

[GeronL]

Maybe it can be a fallback job for Big Bird?

[miserare]

I hope to see her on Dancing With the Stars next season.

She could do a mean samba!

[metmom]

Sign language interpreters often use extreme facial expression. It’s a part of communication.

Exactly. Facial expressions are called *non-manual markers* and are used for inflection just as we change the tone of our voices for emphasis when we speak.

There is the slight possibility that she could be upstaging him, but I seriously doubt it. More than likely the writers of this piece are only displaying their ignorance of sign language.