Sign for Your Supper

If you want something to eat or drink at the Cafe Signes in Paris, you have to figure out how to mime it -- most of the staff is deaf. A leaflet shows sign language for cafe terms, and a sign alphabet is printed on the place mats. Customers at the 4-month-old cafe smack their palms together and wave clumsy circles in the air as they try to order. The staff interprets the gawky gestures of their ham-fisted customers, and for a rare moment, they enjoy the upper hand. "Things are back to front here -- people who can't master sign language feel handicapped, while the deaf are quite in their element," said one of the "hearing" support staff. The joint is a roaring success.