DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, April 25, 2012
-- Did a Chinese company insult Helen Keller?
Xiamen Jinzhi, a Chinese sunglasses manufacturer,
produced a "Helen Keller" sunglasses model.
This is strange. Helen Keller was deafblind
and had no need for for sunglasses and was not
worried about fashion and style. The manufacturer
said it respects Keller's spirit of life, and
thought sunglasses would be honoring her.Insult?
Puzzling? Weird?
-- Old Alexander Graham Bell letters in auction
Alexander Graham Bell wrote an 8-page letter to a woman
in the late 19th century, discussing issues on education
of the deaf. How valuable is that letter? An appraiser
said such letters may be valued between $1,000 and
$1,400 if sold at auction or at estate sales.
-- Regal's new captioned eyeglasses
Regal Entertainment became famous in the past for
not captioning their movies. Now they are introducing
special eyeglasses that shows movie captions on the
glass. It will be ready in all Regal movie houses
next year. What about people that wear regular
eyeglasses? How will this work (eyeglasses plus
captioned eyeglasses)? And if these captioned
eyeglasses are handed down from a deaf user to
another deaf user, is it clean and sanitary?
-- Truth about wrong signs by Depp and Portman in
a British musical video
Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp used some signs
in Paul McCartney's My Valentine song. For the
word "appear" they signed "tampon" and for the
word "Valentine" Depp signed "enemy." Who taught
these signs? Bill Pugin taught them few signs
at the last minute. Pugin, an interpreter, is
well known by deaf and hearing in Hollywood.
Did Pugin teach them ASL or British Sign Language?
ASL and BSL are not the same. This sign-song
was shown in England, and British deaf do not use
ASL.
-- Hand Signal to tell deaf swimmers that a race has started
Some deaf swimmers were the best - Jeff Float and Terence
Parkin won medals in the Olympics. Reed Gershwind was a
4-time NCAA swimming All-American. They raced by listening
to starters' pistols (very really loud). Last week
Marcus Titus, who is hoping to make the USA Olympics team,
convinced USA Swimming to use hand signal to tell him
the race has started. Which is better - heads down, listening
for loud blast from gun or heads up, watching for the
hand signal? DeafDigest swimmers swim faster with starter's
gun, not with hand signal.
4/22/12 Blue edition at:
http://35.182.75.222/category/newsletter/newsletter-blue-newsletter/
4/22/12 Gold edition at:
http://35.182.75.222/category/newsletter/newsletter-gold-newsletter/
