He is my favorite!!!
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The daily government broadcast in the UK, also has a signer. I’m fascinated. I know a couple of signings - “thank you”, “you’re welcome” and “goodbye” but that’s it. What’s been fascinating me is to see if the hand movements sort of directly indicate the word - like “goodbye” is basically waving - but it seems that little actually does. At least not that I can work out. Then there’s the very expressive facial movements and the mouthing of words (which, again, I find impossible to follow).
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This reminded me of some event, maybe it was Mandela’s funeral, where the world leaders were all gathered. They had an ASL reader when Obama was giving his eulogy and after the event concluded it was discovered the ASL reader was a complete fraud. He didn’t know sign language, he was “faking” all the signs and was literally signing nothing but gibberish on the world stage. If memory serves me correctly the guy was even a felon and there he was 5 feet away from the POTUS and other world leaders!
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I remember that happened - can’t recall the event. Maybe Mandela
By the by, we were in South Africa last year and visited the site where he was captured by the secret police. There’s a small museum and a pathway back towards the road. The path is a good hundred yards long. As you start to walk, you see a “something” at the end. It just looks like lots of steel rods driven into the ground. But, as you get closer, you see it becomes a representation of his face. Such a skilful and moving piece of art.
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That is truly a piece of art. On another Mandela note; I remember this Chris Rock joke which I always felt was pretty dam funny:
“Mandela spent 27 years in a South African prison,” he said. “Man can do hard labour in 100-degree South African heat for 27 years with no problem. He got out of jail after 27 years of torture, spent six months with his wife and said, ‘I can’t take this shit no more!’”
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WOW, that’s amazing! Thanks for sharing.
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Very cool and impressive - thanks for sharing @Harters
@Auspicious looks like you made it to Mystic! Hope the last leg of the trip was uneventful.
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Argh. I didn’t fact check, but it’s the kind of thing that makes even the most innocuous posts exhausting.
Tonight, I’m just doing past and present Top Chef.
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I recall another Mandela joke. Comedian was talking, tongue in cheek, about the benefits of harsh sentencing. The line runs line “Look at Mandela. Serves 27 years for terrorism offences. Comes out of jail a reformed character - never commits another offence and even becomes president of his country. A success of the SA prison system.”
OK, it was funnier to hear this than read it.
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We did make it. Some minor logistics at the end. Drive home was fine - rental car worked out with yet more logistics. Maryland mandates a 14-day quarantine for any arriving from another state so my wife did a big shop before I got back and we’re planning to not leave the house at all for two weeks.
I have plenty of work to do at home (consulting, articles) and she works from home also so that is not really a hardship. She will go for walks (13,000 steps yesterday) so not strictly quarantine but I won’t stray further than the mailbox at the end of the driveway. I do plan to do some yelling at neighborhood dog walkers who don’t clean up. “Get off my lawn!” Being a curmudgeon takes practice and dedication. Being a modern curmudgeon means taking pictures and posting them on social media.
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We have a neighbor in our apartment that lives right in front of the dog poop station but lets her mongrels out to do their business and calls them back in. Why even have dogs?
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Here is a thought: print out the following and tape it to your neighbor’s door.
Under that you can scribble something about the local grocery running low on chicken.
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I’m a dog lover, but I have to agree with this idea.
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An animal lover here too, but I think it’s really funny. Nothing quite so obnoxious as irresponsible pet owners. 
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Very glad to hear you made it home safe and sound. It sounds like you have a good plan to make the best of your quarantine. I really enjoyed following your journey. Let us know the next time you are back on the high seas. Stay well.
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Currently I’m making a Scrabble set out of the cardboard box that our meat delivery came in. My brother is has my actual set as I gave it him to store before going travelling to Asia.
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I don’t know it’s always come fairly easily to me:)
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All those hours spent watching Blue Peter have paid off then, mate.
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there’s an app for that
