“I’m Fully Vaccinated!”

With a quick visit to her doctor yesterday—twenty minutes and a lollipop—Kina finally managed to get in the second of her two shots for Covid-19, just days after dodging her own second dance with the coronavirus of the century. In two weeks, she’ll be considered fully vaccinated (for now, and for her age group, at least), but she celebrated her jab by strutting out onto Flatbush Avenue and screaming “I’M FULLY VACCINATED!!!” which was, to be honest, the best news of the day for everybody within earshot.

It’s bonkers that I’ve been drawing this newspaper since vaccines were at best a pipe dream (“Eighteen months” is what Fauci once said when asked what he hoped the turnaround time for a widely-available and effective vaccine would be.) Now my own daughter has antibodies in her blood that target the very reason this publication exists.

The world is unbearable but still sometimes astonishing if you step back far enough.

Today’s Parade is really a pair of eyes, which is an idea that Kina and Laurea had last night while Kina recited the poem mentioned in today’s edition. I’ll copy it here, so you know how impressive it is. See if you can find the eyes.

I saw a peacock with a fiery tail
I saw a blazing comet drop down hail
I saw a cloud with ivy circled round
I saw a sturdy oak creep on the ground
I saw a Venice glass sixteen foot deep
I saw a well full of men’s tears that weep
I saw their eyes all in a flame of fire
I saw a house as big as the moon and higher
I saw the sun even in the midst of night
I saw the man who saw this wondrous sight

dad