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Barbara Falconer Newhall

Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall riffs on life as she knows it.

  • A CASE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION
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What About the Boys? What About the Men?

September 20, 2025 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

what about boys? what about men? men-at-work-replacing-sewer-line-what-about-boys

What about the boys? What about the men? Have we liberated women forgotten to listen to what our men are trying to say?  Read more.

Superbowl: My Guys Are Talking Sports — And All Is Right With the World

January 29, 2015 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

nfl 2015 superbowl playoffs, seattle-greenbay, TV screen shot of game. Photo by Barbara Newhall

I like listening to my husband and son talk about football and basketball. I like the comfortable, father-son tone: My guys are talking sports and all is right with the world. Read more.

For China’s Young Fashionistas the Cultural Revolution Is So Over

December 13, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Two teenaged Chinese girls getting their picture taken in Beijing. One has dyed her hair orange.

Until very recently, when I thought of China, I didn’t think of fun. I thought of the Cultural Revolution of the ’60s and ’70s, when traditional Chinese men were forced to cut off their queues, and intellectuals were banished to the countryside to till the soil and be reeducated into the proletariat.

A Case of the Human Condition: Banning Barbie in West Virginia

March 5, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall Ban Barbie? Seriously? Yes, says Jeff Eldridge, a second-term Democratic delegate to the West Virginia legislature. Eldridge asserts that the Barbie doll encourages little girls to develop their physical beauty over their intellectual and emotional development, so he’s introduced a bill banning the sale of Barbie dolls in the state of West Virginia. “I […]

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LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

I Can’t Believe I Got in the Water With That 1400-Pound Whale

Marine World foto, Newspaper reporter Barbara Falconer Newhall in wet suit and Marine World trainer Deirdre Ballou in boots and rain coat with bottle-nosed dolphin Spock at edge of tank in 1979. Marine World photo.

Last weekend I watched the CNN documentary “Blackfish” and saw a Sea World trainer attacked and pulled underwater by an out-of-control killer whale. I had to wonder — could that have been me? “Blackfish” traces the deadly history of killer whales at places like Sea World, and it brought back memories of the day I found myself in a tank of water with a 1400-pound pilot whale named Koko. Read more.

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TO MY READERS

Please feel free to share links to my posts with one and all and to quote briefly from them in your own writing, remembering, of course, to attribute the quote to me and to provide a link back to this site.

My Oakland Tribune columns, btw, are reprinted by permission of the Trib. With the exception of review copies of books, I do not accept ads or freebies of any kind. Click on the "Contact" button if you have questions. Enjoy!

 

DON’T MISS!

The view from the bow of a ferry boat making its way through the San Juan Islands in summer. Photo by Barbara Newhall

San Juan Islands Flora: Or, I Cling, Therefore I Am

17-foot pilot whale Koko swimns close to reporter barbara falconer newhall at Marine World-Africa USA in 1979. San Francisco Chronicle photo by John O'Hara

I Can’t Believe I Got in the Water With That 1400-Pound Whale

froot-loops-at-my-grocery-store

Sixteen Years Left to Live. How Many Bowls of Froot Loops Is That?

The hills of California's Grapevine pass are dry and silvery gold in the drought winter of 2014. Photo by BF Newhall

For Wetter, For Drier — I’m Married to California

MORE DON'T MISS!

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