* such as:
   *
   * - Make checkOpen return the non-null `seq`. Then callers can assign that to a local variable or
   *   even back to `this.seq`. However, that may suggest that we're defending against concurrent
   *   mutation, which is not an actual risk because we use `synchronized`.
   * - Make `remaining` require a non-null `seq` argument. But this is a bit weird because the