eg. Being able to lip read a conversation through a glass window, which reveals vital info to advance the plot. Or communicating via sign between prisoners held captive

just wanted to check this isn’t seen as a harmful or cliched trope? I remember a few years I saw a tv drama that received good reviews about a deaf lady (played by a deaf actress) who gets brought in by police to lip read a crusty CCTV recording

Hi!

So in the Deaf community, these perks are called Deaf Gain :) [smile face] They're things d/Deafness and Deaf culture provide that hearing people don't get. That includes talking underwater or over long distances/through barriers, not being bothered by loud environments, and chatting while eating.

Communicating while being held prisoner is not one of them. Deaf people signing is often treated as aggression or gang signs, which wouldn't help in a hostage situation. Especially taking into consideration that a kidnapper would likely wear a mask, Deaf people are at high risk for violence in that type of scenario.

The problem with something like lipreading crusty CCTV footage is that lipreading is a game of guesswork at the best of times. Deaf people aren't magic lip readers, we just get a lot more practice than most hearing people, since we rely on it for daily conversation.

Out of context, it's hard to catch more than a few words. And it is discernibly harder any time your hearing changes, because you're getting different auditory clues. Even the best lip readers struggle if there are multiple speakers, the mouth is obscured, or the lighting is wrong. I don't think anyone would actually do well at lipreading grainy security camera footage.

The important thing to remember is Deaf people aren't superhuman. A lot of us are DeafBlind or DeafDisabled. There are perks to knowing and using sign language, and there are perks to Deaf culture, but they're not superpowers.

Hi all. I'm on day 3 of 42 that I'll need to recover from a very complex hysterectomy. Complex because my uterus had attached itself to my bladder and intestines, and had to be carefully cut away from both. I also learned I have stage IV endometriosis, which was a complete shock. No one has ever said "endometriosis" to me in my life. I had a hard time coming out of anesthesia, pain that even 4 doses of fentanyl struggled to mask, and guys, I'm tired.

So apparently Sam was the grand poobah for Tartan Week. As you might imagine, I didn't even know. I was tagged several times to lip read interactions between him and whatever her name is (I genuinely don't know it) and the kid.

I'm so flattered to be thought of, but there's not only nothing here to work with, but this woman is a total non sequitur. And at best, her daughter was used as a prop.

Hard pass.

Even this exchange between Sam and Alex was a nothing sandwich:

Alex says something, Sam says: "Well, if I'm to go..." And Alex says something to the woman.

Can I ask a serious question:

Why do you care?

These two are not in a relationship, but you know that. Cait is at home with the kid(s), and he's being stage-managed in public.

Whatever little 1- to 3-word exchanges he and the woman had on the podium mean nothing. Her nervous tics of bouncing a medium-sized kid on her hip and rearranging her hair tell you everything you need to know:

1) They are dead weight and weren't given anything to do at this event, and

2) Their hearts aren't in it any more than his is.

Tag me when he and Cait are in the same frame. Til something worthwhile comes up, I'll be watching documentaries, reading, and recovering.

Slowed down version. Lip readers, do your work.

My horrific take:

"How... apples... tonight"

"How do we applesauce tonight" 🤣

There was a time when one of Europe's princesses was quietly declared unstable, shut away in a psychiatric clinic, and separated from the children she adored.

Her story should have ended there. Instead, it became one of the most extraordinary transformations of the twentieth century.

Princess Alice of Battenberg had already lived a life few could imagine. Born into royalty and profoundly deaf from early childhood, she learned to read lips in several languages and moved through Europe's glittering royal courts with remarkable determination.

Then her world unraveled.

After Greece's monarchy collapsed, her family fled into exile. Financial ruin, political upheaval, and relentless personal strain followed.

In 1930, after experiencing a severe mental health crisis marked by intense religious beliefs, Alice was committed to a Swiss sanatorium.

The decision remains controversial. Sigmund Freud was consulted, and one of his recommendations involved X-ray treatments intended to suppress her libido — an intervention that today is viewed as deeply misguided.

While she was institutionalized, her marriage collapsed, and she became painfully estranged from her children.

Many assumed the disgraced princess would simply disappear. Instead, she quietly rebuilt her life.

During the Nazi occupation of Athens, Alice remained in Greece while many others fled. Then came the decision that would define her legacy.

She hid the Cohen family, a Jewish widow and two of her children, inside her home, knowing that discovery could mean execution.

When questioned by the Gestapo, her deafness became an unexpected advantage. She simply claimed she could not hear their questions.

After the war, Israel honored her as one of the Righteous Among the Nations, recognizing those who risked everything to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust.

She spent her final years not in luxury but serving the poor as a Greek Orthodox nun. When she died in 1969, she owned little more than her religious habit.

History remembers many princesses for the crowns they wore. Princess Alice is remembered for what she chose to do after almost everything else had been taken away.

—

Princess Alice of Battenberg (Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie; 25 February 1885 – 5 December 1969) was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II, and paternal grandmother of King Charles III.

After marrying Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark in 1903, she adopted the style of her husband, becoming Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark.

First, I’ll give you a little backstory that lead me to the proof, which also very few people seemed to have paid attention to until now: we know that Aziraphale and Crowley can communicate via lip reading. They did it in 1941 during the bullet catch, so it’s canon that they have been doing it for decades, possibly even centuries.

I got stuck on that scene because he definitely did not mouth ‘trust me’, but it took a while (and group effort) to figure out what he actually mouthed: our prim and proper angel Aziraphale mouthed ‘come for me’.

Now, I find it fascinating how Crowley translates that to ‘trust me’ later on, but I guess during, errr, sexual activities there is a lot if trust involved. (And they couldn’t possibly have them say that out loud in a PG-13 show 😅) But finding it out made me very happy, because I’d like to believe they have been shagging for aeons 🥰

Ok. So, we can agree that at the time of the final fifteen, they are definitely experts at lip reading. A lot of people already noticed Aziraphale’s concerned expression when he turned his back on the Metatron and is walking back towards the bookshop:

But did you notice that he is actually mouthing to Crowley during the final fifteen? Not once, but twice? Or did you miss what was right in front of you? (It’s a masterful magic trick to hide in plain sight, by the way.)

Here, I’ll show you the first moment:

Excuse the shitty gif quality. I had to make this and the following one myself because I couldn’t find them in tumblr’s gif library. Guess nobody bothered to capture it before.

listening to this scene with the sound off really helped pinpoint these moments

He mouths “we need help” (and does a sort of horizontal ‘time-out’ T gesture with his hands? Not sure what that’s about.) just after he says he got some incredibly good news to give to Crowley. He probably did this to get his full attention, because Crowley seems very emotional here, and just about ready to propose on the spot. (Makes sense, after what Beez and Jimbriel just did.)

Let’s be real, if your angelic best friend and lover of +6k earthly years mumbles “we need help” then you know shit’s going down. So they have their little pretend argument (and maybe some of these emotions and misunderstandings like “nothing lasts forever” were actually real)

Then Crowley kisses Aziraphale. And then, here’s the juicy moment:

Read his lips. He is mouthing: “Meet me afterwards.” And then says, out loud, “I forgive you.”

If he had only mouthed once during their whole conversation, it wouldn’t have been clear to me if Crowley actually saw it, but the second one? Meet me afterwards? Yeah ok. They are definitely fooling us. And not just the audience, but also anyone else who’s watching them. Like, say, the Metatron. We know that a person can easily peek into the bookshop through the windows, and that guy is in the perfect position to observe the whole scene from across the street.

Having said all that, I am not sure if Aziraphale meant it as “meet me after I fucked them up in heaven/hell/wherever I’m about to go with this Metatron guy or whoever he is” or if he thought he had some time left at the bookshop ‘to sort his things out’ before being called upstairs, so he could talk to Crowley properly then.

But he did give Crowley another stare before entering the elevator, and we know that Crowley already knows about the second coming, so they probably looked at each other and realized that the other one knows what’s at stake now.

Now, when I look at the elevator scene and Aziraphale’s crazy grin, it makes perfect sense to me where it didn’t before: he knows that his husband is getting the help they need and he will come to help him fuck that place up.

I am very excited about the Good Omens finale, but I don’t think there will be any ‘apology dance’ or emotional break-up talk at all.

Phew, I need to see the kiss again after that.

Rehman - “ab Samajh me aa raha hain, pichle itne salon se tu uzair ko seduce kar raha tha?”

Hamza - “aap Zara kentrol karein”