Barbara’s Riffs on Life

Over-Wrought Iron — Those Curlicues Had to Go

Those Fifties kitsch geegaws on the stair railing have got to go. That’s what I told myself when Jon and I bought this house back in 1978. Read more.

Very festive. Very patriotic. No jets or tanks, just the red, white and blue flying on the Fourth of July at our house again this year. Read more.

Six hundred miles and millions of poppies on California’s Interstate 5 — and one more Sunday NYT crossword puzzle bites the dust. Read more.

This year’s California Golden Poppies are a richer, darker — orange — color than I’ve ever seen in the Bay Area. Credit that winter rain? Read more.

Cathy Guisewite, cartoonist and author of “Fifty Things That Aren’t My Fault,” writes the way I want to write: with humor and grace. Read more.

Joe Biden is a good guy. But he doesn’t get it. This touchy-feely stuff has never been OK. He needs to own up to that. Read more.