49. This is Not Going to Be Fun

The classic cold season cascade, depicted in a family of ducks, is something every household knows all too well. “Oh no, you have a cold!”—the initial sympathy is as much a knee-jerk reaction as the sneeze that follows. But we all know the subtext, the unspoken truth that echoes through the halls.

It’s the domino effect no one signed up for, the gift that keeps on giving. And as the sneezes multiply, so does the stockpile of tissues and the cacophony of coughs. Welcome to the symphony of sneezes, a seasonal performance in the living room orchestra pit. Curtain up, and may the odds be ever in your immune system’s favor.