Word: pattered
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...sleights of hand to create his fiction; the writer uses sleights of mind. Edgar Allan Poe, whose stories and poems have put generations of readers into a gothic trance, took time out to satirize the tricks of the literary trade. His Eureka uses metaphysical doubletalk to "explain" philosophy. The patter creates credibility, leading Poe to conclude elsewhere that "pleased at comprehending, we often are so excited as to take it for granted that we assent." In "Diddling: Considered as One of the Exact Sciences," he offers the ingredients of a good con: "Minuteness, interest, perseverance, ingenuity, audacity, nonchalance, originality, impertinence...
...with that patter, but he is tired now. "When you're 40, you'll find you get tired," he says. A few silent minutes pass. "Every so often," and his voice diminishes again, "a certain breed comes along. History might produce something better than Joe Frazier and me later, but not now. You can't make me believe Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns is as big as me and Joe Frazier in the Garden. Joe was great...
...three, Randall clearly holds the pivotal role--and presents far and away the greatest acting challenge. Once he drops his smooth line of hip patter, Randall shiftsr rapidly through a stunningly broad range of emotions and motivations, his credo "I feel therefore I am." Depending on the moment, he must be honest, passionate, bitingly sarcastic, or so completely detatched that he can recite with a curiously third-person coldness a list of murders statistics or tales of his own bloody crimes. Lamar handles the transformations so naturally and so strikingly that the audience is taken aback, both startled and pulled...
Simmons' weekday show is a chattery potpourri of exercise ("Tuck in those tushies, girls!"), diet tips ("Peanuts will make you full!") and cheery behavior-mod patter. His Never-Say-Diet Book is No. 1 on the New York Times's bestseller list, where it has been lodged for 38 weeks. At 5 ft. 7 in., 138 Ibs., Simmons seems a model of svelte fitness, but he knows whereof he sweats. As a boy in New Orleans, he sampled so many crêpes suzette at the family's restaurant that by his 18th birthday he weighed...
Sounds like fun, and it sounds like the perfect opportunity for enlisted folk to launch some harmless barbs at the big bosses. Can't you just hear the casual patter as another morning of exercise draws to a close, with a stenographer saying to a general...