Before the power went down in Tuckahoe last night, we attended a Mass celebrated for Pope John Paul II. I thought it was important to bring the boys, espcially Cookie who's named for the man, but I also knew it would be a challenge to keep them quiet for that long so late in the day. They were tired. Mojo was cranky over a runny nose. Cookie is by nature a chattering monkey. Alane dealt with Mojo; I tried to keep Cookie still. He squirmed; he crawled under the pew; he made a lot of noise. And he did something strange... Every once in a while he'd smile wide and turn his face toward me and slowly say the word:

"Acupuncture."

I don't know where he got that or why he was saying it. I thought to myself, "This makes no sense," but then I thought that at Spumoni South it would seem quite normal.