Thursday dinner

Mom: Is it okay to swat flies?
A.: Are you asking me?
Mom: Yes.
A.: I would swat a fly, yes.
Mom: What about wolves?
A.: Huh?
Mom: Is it okay for wolves and bears to kill? They kill animals for food.
A.: Yes they do. That is what they do.
Mom: So?
A.: So?
Mom: Isn't that what we do?
A.: No. We don't hunt our own prey. We partake in a destructive, unfair, industrialized food system.
Mom: Whatever.

A few minutes later

Mom: What was that Belorussian expression? "All that goes in the mouth should be eaten?" [It's catchier in Russian; it even rhymes.]
Dad: Hold up. That expression was born of a very hungry time in the Soviet Union. It was an almost-propaganda-like slogan to get people to eat things they wouldn't have thought of eating. It's not quite applicable in this day and age and place.
A.: Thank you for that.

***

Mom: I think we have a [Russian layer cake] in the freezer. I was saving it for guests, but you count as a guest.
A.: Only I don't eat cakes with dairy in them.
Mom: Maybe it doesn't have dairy.
A.: I think it does.
Mom: Well, let's have it anyway.

***

Mom: Just think--decades from now, you'll look back on this moment and many others like it and think, I wish I'd tried that cake. You'll think about all the things you never tried.
A.: [Shrug.]

***

Mom: Writers know how to write. Nobody has to teach them how to write. Right?
Dad: Wrong. If someone has a message they want to convey to humanity, and need some guidance in conveying it, why not get that guidance?
Mom: How much do you owe on your house?
A.: Mom, we can have this conversation if/when I get in. I'm not interested in having it every five minutes for the next week.
Mom: I'm just sayin'.
A.: I know how much I owe on my house without your saying anything.