Re: Pete's hearing/"signing" at NYC shows?

[Gord1@aol.com]

In a message dated 96-05-18 02:27:27 EDT, KathyVT@aol.com writes:

>During "I Put A Spell On You", near the end, he
>raised his right hand and appeared to have signed the song title - very fast
>fingers (oo!). Some in our little audience group seemed to believe it was
>accurate sign language motions, while others though he might have been doing
> "hocus pocus" kind of gestering that would fit the "spell" motif. It really
>seemed like very delibrate motions, rather than random. The one person with
>us who can sign alittle, thought it was legit, but way too fast for him to
>make out. 
>
>Did anyone else catch this?
>
>If Pete is fluent in sign language, maybe his hearing lose was more serious
>than we imagined? or maybe he just likes to use his hands -hMMM.....

My guess is that it was just random.  British sign language is different than
American Sign Language (ASL) and different from Signing Exact English (SEE).
  
However in ASL, to sign the line "I put a spell on you" can be done quite
quickly with one hand.  The word "I" is done by pointing the pinky finger up
and moving the hand away from the body. "Put" is signed by clenching the
fingers together as if to grab something (imagine a dirty diaper) and
dropping it away from the body.  "Spell" is done by moving all four fingers
up and down as if playing a piano fast and the word "you" is done by pointing
the index finger at someone.

This would be pseudo-sign language as the sign I described for "Spell" is in
the context of spelling, not magic spells, but those of us who know some sign
language but don't use it all the time are prone to use the wrong signs when
we can't use or don't know the official signs.

-gordie