As serious as this storm is, Michael Bloomberg’s frequent press conferences have also provided New Yorkers a legitimate reason to smile: Her name is Lydia Callis*, and she’s the mayor’s official sign language interpreter, translating live on air as he delivers the latest news on Hurricane Sandy. Unlike Bloomberg’s own stilted Spanish, another highlight of the updates, Callis’s signing is both lightning-fast and emotive, her animated face lighting up and contorting happily as she goes, not unlike a guitarist during a blistering solo. Callis already has quite the online fan club (tweets listed below).
There is already a Tumblr, “Lydia Calas’ [sic] Face for NYC Mayor,” and, of course, here she is in .gif form (h/t @ditzkoff):
*We misspelled Ms. Callis’ name in an earlier version of this post.
