I could be wrong, but I think he may have a cleft palate. In any case, he cannot produce ‘r’ or ‘l’ sounds. However petty it is of me, hearing him talk just sorta gives me the willies. And I hear him talk five days a week. I work at an NPR station.
I thought it was adenoids. I can’t listen to him. “Geeky teenager in his parent’s basement” is quite apt.
I’ve never actually noticed any difficulty with l or r sounds - to me, the noticeable quality in his speech is the annoying way he . . . speaks in little bursts . . . with innappropriate . . . pauses between them.
It’s still a great show; I love to listen to it. But I wish I could punch him till he learned to talk at a normal pace.
Are you guys joking? Diane Rehm is relaxing, and Ira Glass is grating? If he isn’t washing down Quaaludes with bourbon before every show, then I’d love to know his secret:
“From WBEZ Chicago.
It’s This American Life.
This week on This American Life we look at a family.
Regular.
People like you and me, who.
Happen to have something.
Strange.
Happen to them while they’re at an all-night diner.
Let’s listen.”
Giggle That was a spot-on imitation,** Jurph**. I love This American Life. I listen to it religiously (it’s on on Sundays here). I even considered getting Audible so I could download old ones and listen, but OMG, what a Byzantine system that is. And pricey. I think you should be able to download any show NPR does for free if you’re a public radio member.
You can listen to any of the archived shows at thislife.org in RealAudio. I’ve never had a reason to want to record anything RealAudio, but I believe there’s a freeware program called Streambox VCR that will save it to your hard drive as it plays. But don’t take my word, you might look into Google to learn about it.
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Gah! jellyblue those A Way With Words chaps are the worst. I know they may be perfectly nice people in real life, but when they get on a roll, they sound like the most pompous windbags I’ve ever heard![sub]well, except for Ian Campbell from At the Opera…[/sub]