“That is the ugliest thing I have ever seen,” B said to me this morning, while we were enjoying a delicious breakfast at Lazy Jane’s Cafe on Willy Street. “I’ve been looking at it all this time, and it just keeps getting uglier.”

I turned around to see what she was looking at, a decorative ceramic doo-dad that was probably meant to sit on a sideboard, maybe to hold flowers. It looked like something from the Ceramic Arts Studio, which used to be right here in Madison, Wisconsin. My uncle Jim used to collect CAS pieces he found at auctions, much to the dismay of my auntie Sue. I thought they were kind of cute, but My Darling B shares auntie Sue’s opinion of them.

“I kinda like it,” I said to B, after giving it a long, appraising look. I got a long eye-roll in return. It’s not that I thought it was beautiful, but what it had an awful lot of was kitsch, and if there’s one thing I appreciate, it’s kitsch, particularly when applied in generous dollops to decorative flower holders. I would’ve happily put this one on the side board. B, however, would never agree to it. Aw, well.