Sign of the Times

     Occasionally, Mike watches the horse races with some of his friends.  On Preakness day, one of the guys, who drives a delivery truck, remarked that he was making a delivery near one of the prisons in Camden when he saw a bunch of women on the sidewalk gesticulating wildly.  He was mystified.  I'm not sure how Mike knew what was going on, but he had the answer.  The women were "speaking" to inmates using sign language.  Who da thunk?
     It's called body texting, and it's been around for a while.  Here's an article from 1993 that discusses the goings on in front of the Camden County jail.  http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=110&dat=19930125&id=LJYLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rFUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7227,1549508
In Bernalillo County, New Mexico the girls have added a little New Orleans style booby flashing to their messages.  Prison officials say this causes "restlessness" among the inmates.
     While some of the signing utilizes the American Sign Language alphabet to spell words, much of the medium is specific to the local population.
     I have heard that some convents require nuns to maintain silence.  The sisters use signs to make simple requests, like asking for another slice of bread at dinner.  More than one hundred years ago, hand signals were required in  some prison mess halls.

     Prisoners also try to thwart corrections officers by communicating with each other using signs.
     Humans are ingenious.  I find ingenuity almost as fascinating as the deviant mind.  I suppose the two go hand in hand sometimes.