Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for March 11, 2022

How about a contest to see who can stay the quiet the longest?

I am planning to wait until the pandemic is over before getting my second booster.

That recall me a story about the meeting of two italian partizans during IIWW: they competed to see who had the most guns by placing them on the table.

as Mr. Plotz from the original version of the Animaniacs said: “WHEN WILL THIS INSANITY END?!?!”

Ironically, this “contest” is pointless.

I hope there are no long term, ill consequences for anyone, regardless of camp.

Reminds me of my one-uppy friend who heard that another friend had pneumonia. I mentioned that I’d had double pneumonia. Of course One Uppy had triple pneumonia. Must have been uniquely difficult for him!

Stop needling each other.

So tired, so very tired…

i got an even bigger needle

Double Dare, anyone? (Oh, wait, let me get in my time machine to-wait, when should i go to? 1982? A christmas story? Triple dog dare? Or how about the 1990s? For the Nickelodeon game show with marc summers? Which one?)

I have had my covid shots thrice and I feel fine.

It’s not the first time Rat has taken shots until he was so “boosted” he couldn’t get off the floor. Maybe not even the first time that night.

“This is not a competition.” Darwin would posit otherwise.

What the hell????

Needle envy.

Yeah but was it Pfizer or Moderna?

All this needless needling over needles!

I drink it straight from the bottle. Now top that!

I think we have a new Olympic sport: Extreme Vaccinating.

Who was that mask man? Lone Range would have been soooo envious. Tonto got shot!

When I was in the service they used to talk about a square needle.

Fortunately i have gotten my boaster shot. I believe that one-ups the others.

I’ve had covid twice, so I’m loaded with antibodies that will only be useful until a sufficiently varied mutation comes around.

I think he is just poking fun at vaccinations.

I get a much bigger needle jammed into me every two weeks! I beat Rat and Pig both!

Because donate platelets. The needle for the apheresis machine is bigger than anything attached to a syringe.

Exactly. Now draw one about the competition to put up more “I support the Ukraine” bling on my social media accounts or “I’m willing to pay $5.00 to $15.00 a gallon for gas because George Takei says so and Stephen Colbert drives a Tesla.”

I can’t decide if you humans are interesting or should we just reveal ourselves and take over now and put you out of your misery.

Stephan has done way too many jokes about the pandemic

Wrong, Goat. Just because it should not be a competition, does not mean that people are not making it one.

Though my friends treated it like a competition until the second one who had a booster shot got sick. Then they stopped caring.

Rat will raise Pig’s big needle with a used syringe from the Tenderloin.

I don’t think you’re supposed to get shots more than the required amount.

I used to take 5 shots a day, plus prick my finger 5 or 6 times. Now I just leave a couple of cannulas under my skin 24/7. :-P :-/

mine is infinity x yours

Watch out or you’ll do a Heather McDonald (comedian). THAT was scary.

Pig got the vaccine so late.

If you use a needle for no reason, that’s no good.

A needle of unknown origin? How does he know it doesn’t have potassium chloride in it?

I double-checked my card and yesterday marked one year since I got the second round. Today marks one year since I spent the whole afternoon shivering in bed having bizarre fever dreams, including one where I witnessed the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. I became dehydrated despite having two full water bottles right next to me, because I felt so weak I didn’t trust myself to make it from bedroom to bathroom when nature called.

Tomorrow will mark one year since I felt fine.

Goat’s right – it’s not a competition; it’s just what people with a lick of intelligence and enough decency to care about their fellow humans do to protect themselves and everyone else.

None of the shots and boosters worked; they just created a false sense of security. COVID is going away on its own without any help from the vaccines.

since when is it a contest, I cant even get my booster as im 15 living in red necked alberta, where a darned calgarian is in power. almost wish i lived in the states, (almost canada is still great, our gov’t may not be as good with covid but our prime minister is handling the Ukraine situation better then the states)

Needle envy? OMG, Pastis wrote a LOL strip? Had to see it to believe it… :)

This one’s going to light up t he comment board.

And it’s written so new readers won’t have the slightest idea which side he’s on.

I’ve seen horse needles. You don’t want to go there.

It really has become that stupid.

People, I guess because they are people are so odd about this on both sides. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest for someone to ask if I am vaccinated. I will ask friends or anyone that I have to spend time with like a hair dresser or doctor. Since medical professionals always wear masks and insist you do as well, I guess it does not matter. One way or the other if I am indoors with other people not part of my family I wear a mask, and will for the foreseeable future.

And so it begins again….

With the rapid decline in effectiveness, we need a new motto: a needle a day keeps the COVID away.

But did you get the flu shot?

Why are they using needles? I thought that you got shots from a glass.

I called a repairman for my Fridge today, I had to disclose health info to them before they would pick up the phone. HIPPA Who?

Goat of course has it right. But the premise of the strip is a case of projection: pro-vaccination people don’t think of it as a competition, but anti-vaxxers sure do, and are happy to send whole populations over a cliff rather than admit to being wrong-headed.

Pastis is needling the people that get needled.

Does two shots of Fireball in an Angry Orchard count?

I got both shots. Got boosted – got sick. Got the second Booster shot – got even sicker. Doc said that showed they were working.

Calling Dr. Fauci! Calling Dr. Fauci! Fauci, where are you these days?

My syringe is bigger than your syringe. Nah nah!

“Needle of Unknown Origin.” I loved that album.

See, this is why I love this comic. You expect another lame pun, instad you get Covid in a nutshell. So to speak :-)

“Indiana Jones and the Needle of Unknown Origin”, in theaters this Fall!

Shoulda seen the one ER put into my knee to drain the infection!