Its knotty, gnarled intestines are all safely tucked in; there isn't a second of the record that feels out of place, and every stray surprise serves a comedic or melodic function like the the sudden, stammering human voices that interrupt "4" a couple times, or the galloping pile of percussion that repeatedly sneaks up on you on "To Cure a Weakling Child".
"You're," she stammered, her voice a mixture of scorn and amazement, "you're giving someone Infinite Jest as a present?" Her reaction, I soon realised, was entirely justified.
"Um," I stammered, my voice hoarse, high-pitched and teary, so unlike the upbeat friend I usually was with him.
"She sustained us in the saddest times by her faith in God, which was the greatest gift she gave us," Mr. Kennedy said, his voice stammering.
Stammering in a voice that seemed trapped in her throat, she told about a boyfriend who pushed her from a moving car and left her in a dangerous neighborhood miles from home.
After a while, I was almost stammering, as if my voice had disappeared".
"Well," the voice stammered, "you charged me late fees when I was only late once in 10 years, and then you all were rude to me on the phone".
In place of the gulping, stammering Sloane is an exterminating angel, media-brief, interview-perfect; the big eyes more deeply set, the look simultaneously victim and conqueror, the voice impassioned and pathetic.
"He was stammering," Dreher recalled.
I hear myself stammering, "Yes!
