t's an extraordinary moment in history, one that prompts strangers to talk on the subway, spurs jokes about the Electoral College, turns cabdrivers into pundits, and prompts workers to huddle around television sets all day.
Across Boston, the suspense over the Bush-Gore presidential election and the cliffhanger Florida recount has quickened the collective pulse of a city that thrives on politics. And that pulse yesterday beat to now-familiar questions: Who is leading? What's the latest vote count? Who will win?
In the morning, Robert Hasan, a night-shift inspector at a General Electric plant in Lynn, began his day by checking the news. By yesterday afternoon, he still didn't know who the next president would be, but he was willing to wait. ''We've just got to be patient,'' he said.
At 2:20 yesterday afternoon, store clerk Marion Luning kept up with the news through a radio and her clientele at Harbor Point Liquors in Dorchester.
''My regular customers have been telling me the tallies,'' said Luning, an Al Gore supporter whose candidate slowly gained ground as the day wore on. ''They were saying he's 700 votes [down] and still counting.''
In downtown Boston, a flock of smokers outside a Chauncy Street office building chatted about the news still blaring on their radios upstairs.
''We've survived in my lifetime Eisenhower, Truman, the Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy's assassination,'' said John Ferris, a government worker and self-described political cynic. ''We'll survive this.''
''It's brought two generations together,'' answered his colleague, Tim Dunphy, who said a teenager on the subway asked him to explain the election results during his commute.
''He wanted to know exactly what was happening,'' Dunphy said. ''People are in limbo. It's like the world has kind of stopped.''
Visitors to the city were also caught up: Don Farthing of Oregon said the cabdriver who picked him up at Logan Airport was convinced that Governor Jeb Bush of Florida helped his brother, George W. Bush, by meddling with the votes.
In an elevator at City Hall, men in suits traded barbs about the electoral college and speculated on what the outcome would mean here: Will Senator John Kerry work in Gore's White House? Or will Governor Paul Cellucci head to Washington with Bush?
Boston City Councilor Maureen E. Feeney (Dorchester), in her office at 3:45 p.m., was glued to CNN's latest tally: ''That man Bush is down to only 408 votes!'' she yelled to her staff.
Feeney, who rejoiced past midnight when John F. Kennedy won the presidency, said the Florida stalemate has broken new ground.
''I don't think I can remember in all my life something like this,'' she said gleefully.
''In an era where you would think that prediction of election results should be split-second, days later we are still hooked on CNN like an intravenous lifeline.''
Next door, City Councilor Maura A. Hennigan (Jamaica Plain) said seniors at a luncheon she attended in Norwood couldn't stop commiserating about their peers in Florida who, confused by the ballots, voted for Buchanan instead of Gore.
At 4:45, the glow of a television set shined like a beacon in Skipjack's Seafood Emporium in Copley Square, where Kevin Vouglitois sat at the bar.
''I'm not leaving until I hear the results,'' said Vouglitois, restaurant manager and crestfallen Bush supporter. ''This is the first time I've gotten excited about politics since Bush lost to Clinton.
''We'll never see this again,'' he said. ''This is something to tell your kids about.''
