Last night I went to my parents' house with a visiting friend to watch the taped SNL episode with Al Gore and ended up staying for dinner. My brother, father, friend and I were eating and chatting when my mother came downstairs. Now my mom has had the really bizarre cold that she hasn't been able to shake for a month and her medication makes her drowsy. So she was upstairs falling asleep to NPR before she stumbled downstairs.

She gives us this bewildered glassy-eyed stare and says, "Gore's not running. They just announced it."

I say, "Are you sure?'

She nods,takes a deep breath, and turns to go back upstairs. My dad calls out to her, "How do you feel?" Meaning of course physically.

She turns back, pauses, and says, "Shocked."