How To Make Helen Keller Giggle

I was watching the news yesterday, during my unexpected day off, and they showed a clip of our glorious Governor swearing in the very people that are impeaching him.  It is a beautiful piece of political irony.  Anyway, I noticed that while Gov. Blagojevich was going through the formalities that a young woman was standing about three feet away from him signing, as in talking to deaf people, whatever he was saying.

And it got me thinking, how do those of us who are not fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) actually know what the signer is saying?  Or how do the deaf people who do know ASL trust that what the signer is saying is what the governor is actually saying?  I think the

re is a lot of room for error in this situation.

Though I think if this whole office job doesn't work out I might go become fluent in ASL, which would be my third language, and get a job as a signer.  (Is signer even the right term?  Hmm.)  Just think of how much fun you could have.  And no, I don't mean fun by messing with the hearing impaired.  I mean adding a lovely running commentary to what you are interpreting to make things more interesting.  It would be like live blogging.

So should this economy tank even more than it is already and I get laid off, at least now I have a back up plan.  

~ The Office Scribe