by Paul Hostovsky
The name-sign for Ron DeSantis in American Sign Language is exactly the same as the sign for Satan, according to my deaf informants at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine. The etymology of that name-sign may have something to do with the visual similarity (deaf people are intensely visual, after all) between the letters in Satan and the letters in Santis, or it may have something to do with the similarity of their policies– for example, their shared affinity for burning, and also their preference for darkness and the benighted over the light of day and the being fully awake. Bottom line, if you ever happen to eavesdrop on some deaf people animatedly signing about Ron DeSantis, it would be a forgivable and understandable mistake if you thought they were talking about Satan, because although they're not quite synonyms they are unmistakably homonyms in ASL.
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Paul Hostovsky makes his living in Boston as a sign language interpreter. His newest book of poems is Pitching for the Apostates (forthcoming, Kelsay Books).
Brilliant