Too Many Holes In the Crust of the Earth

I.

Daria: Why are you calling me at 10 p.m.?
Tata: Because that happens to be now.
Daria: No, why are you calling me at 10 p.m.?
Tata: Did you know that between meals other people stop eating?
Daria: I did not know that.
Tata: It rings - like - a distant bell, doesn't it?
Daria: Yeah, maybe I'll put my snack down and think about it.

II.

Three-Year-Old: What's this?
Tata: It's a garden stake with a friendly face. It keeps your plants company.
TYO: It doesn't scare the birds?
Tata: No, sweetheart. A face in the garden doesn't scare birds.
TYO: What about scarecrows?

III.

Tata: I am a genius and I know this because I am an idiot!
Leilani Goldberg: D'ya ever take a number to have a talk with yourself?
Tata: Okay okay okay so you know how my hip flexors have been tight like angry fists and causing me fairly consistent and debilitating agony?
Leilani: Yes...?
Tata: So the other night, I get off the rowing machine, which usually buys me about two hours pain-free, and suddenly I have one of those blinding revelations that makes you feel brilliant and stupid at the same time. Ready? 'While my muscles are warm, why don't I stretch my hip flexors?'
Leilani: And what happened?
Tata: No pain for a whole day. I'm a genius! And I'm an idiot! Because I have known since we had baby teeth that stretching is the answer but did I get down on the floor?
Leilani: The floor is your friend.
Tata: I'm surprised my friend took me back.

IV.

Tata: Pete, dinner is spectacular.
Pete: Thank you!
Tata: I'm glad you quit that hideous restaurant. That place always made you angry.
Pete: I'm thinking about working as a personal chef.
Tata: That's good. Your cooking deserves a wider audience, and if it doesn't get one, dahhhhhling, I will become that wider audience.

V.

An ice storm is coming. I feel this in every fiber of my being. Even so there is reason for delight: the seed catalogs have arrived. They bring new magic words: self-pollenating fruit trees. Now is the time to dream of fragrant, sunny afternoons.