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I Do Like That Shirt

Some of Sue’s recent pithy and astute observations.

“Yes, you have put on weight”. Well, duh!

“Those baggy brown cord trousers are what an old man would wear”. Whoopee, I’m not old yet.

“I don’t like that shirt”. Rubbish. Disagree. My favourite Hawaiian shirt is a silky, midnight blue creation with subdued silver orchids on it. That is classic not Mafia-like.

“Why can’t live subtitles be correct and accurate when I can ask my tablet obscure questions which it gets right?”

A good point. We were watching something – might have been the news – and the subs were more like a scrabble hand than what was being said. And, oddly, on ITV local news, the subs were shown before the presenter said the words. Even ‘in front’ of the local weather report as well, so it can be done.

My knowledge of subtitling is basic, to say the least, and I don’t speak to my phone (which Sue does a lot) or the laptop because … well, I didn’t know I could. Probably won’t bother now I do know. I do wonder, though, if applying subs has been over thought and if the simpler method of voice recognition used in mobiles and pc’s might be a better solution.

We watched ‘Supernatural’ last week because the trailer showed a Deaf person fighting demons. Better yet, the other characters signed to her even when using their picture phones. Yup, a her.

The U.S. show seems to be a mix of (slightly) comic horror and combating evil and is definitely not based on fact. Great though to see a character who isn’t built like Stallone and isn’t fazed by not hearing whilst the males aren’t trying to stop her putting herself at risk.

The show may well not be to your tastes, yet I hope you’ll agree – more of these positive roles for non-hearing folk please.

Liam Neeson springs to mind as a non-hearing or speaking witness to a crime in ‘Suspect’ – but his was a passive role (better than those ‘Taken’ movies though). Naturally , ‘Children of a lesser God’ should be included in any discussion about deaf characters in films. Then I wondered what I’d find if I googled ‘deaf characters in movies’ and was surprised to find quite a list (some dire) on IMDB.com. And, lots more sites than I’d imagined, so I’m now off to look through them.

Must take the diet more seriously.