A stutter is not something I’d wish upon anyone (though I could be tempted). Mine is blessedly behind me, for the most part. But it comes back on occasion; and usually at the worst moments for a reporter, such as when I’m trying to establish trust on the phone, or have to approach a prominent person in a noisy, public setting.

My humiliation has not been entirely for naught, however. I came to realize that a stutter could disarm, and even bestir a desire to help. More, people reveal themselves in their instinctive response to another’s distress. I didn’t have to finish my question—in the middle of which I stuttered badly—to see that Ray Flynn, Boston’s former mayor, was a functioning human being. His eyes showed genuine concern. In a similar situation, Pete Rose, the disgraced former batting star, gave me a look of incomprehension. Former New York mayor Ed Koch was his usual unpleasant self—though in fairness, I can’t remember whether it was my stutter, or just him.

Working at a small media outlet provides something of a similar window. I host a weekly show on KWMR-FM, the community station that serves the rural, western side of Marin County, California. We have a committed audience of avid readers, and so it is an especially good venue for writers. But an e-mail from me is not like a call from Oprah’s booker, or one from the Today show; and the way prominent people respond can reveal something about them that Oprah probably doesn’t get to see.

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