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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
  • MY EVER-CHANGING FAMILY
  • WRITING & READING
  • MY ROCKY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
  • WIDOWED
  • FUNNY BUTTON

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Instead of My Toys, They Played With Peanut Shells

October 18, 2025 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

they-played-with-peanut-shells/ people-made-of-peanut-shells

Instead of playing with my toys, the visiting grandchildren played with a bag of peanut shells — and made tiny peanut people.  Read more.

I Like My Past. It’s a Keeper

June 28, 2025 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

i like my past it's a keeper little-boys-drawing-of-home

We are instructed by the wise ones among us to live in the present. But I like my past. It’s a keeper and I like visiting it from time to time.  Read more.

Was I a Tradwife in the 1980s? Or a Liberated Woman in Progress?

April 26, 2025 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Was I a tradwife? family-of-four

Was I a tradwife back in the 1980s?  Or was I a second-wave feminist still figuring out how to make the marriage-family-career thing work?  Read more.

What to Do With Those Battered Old Baby Shoes? Hide Them in a Wall, of Course

March 29, 2025 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

baby-shoes-hidden-in-a-wall

Those battered old baby shoes? Hide them in a wall. It’s centuries old tradition that lets you declutter without giving up your dear old stuff.  Read more.

Kids Leave Home. They Just Do

February 1, 2025 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

kids leave home Scottville-michigan-house

Kids leave home. That’s how it often is in our oversized, mobile nation. We pack up and move across the country with impunity, leaving our families and origins behind.  Read more.

My Son Is in the Hospital With Appendicitis 2,000 Miles Away. How Do I Mother Him From Here?

January 25, 2025 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

my son in hospital with appendicitis 2000 miles away

My son Is in the hospital with appendicitis 2,000 miles away. He’s 28 years old and living on his own. How do I mother him from here?

When My Mother Was the Grandma

October 19, 2024 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

when my mother was the grandma

My mother was the grandma in the family. She deserved respect from our kids. Not because she’d earned it, but because she was the grandma.  Read more.
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LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

I Miss My Friends. But I Miss My Acquaintances More — Sheltering at Home Week 5

I miss my acquaintances. A Zoom exercise class gave me the chance to say hello to some of them.

I miss my acquaintances. I miss the shopkeepers, the women in my Zumba class, the friends of friends, all the people who know me, but don’t know my name. Read more.

MORE "ON THE FUNNY SIDE"

CATEGORIES

  • A Case of the Human Condition
  • My Ever-Changing Family
  • On Writing & Reading
  • My Rocky Spiritual Journey

 
Need some levity? Push my Funny Button!

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!

man-cooking-in-den

Our Remodel Has Kept Us Company — We’ll Miss the Carpenters, the Electricians and the Pile Drivers. Sheltering at Home Week 11

Ceramic cake by Richard Shaw -- "Bride and Ship, 2003." Photo by BF Newhall

Ceramics Envy at the Berkeley Art Center — I Want to Get My Hands into that Earthy, Messy, Squishy Clay

white blossoms of flowering tree up close

Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder – But What If There’s No Beholder?

Two flowers, one thriving, one not remind me of Ann Patchett and her friend Lucy. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Ann Patchett — My Brand-New Favorite Author

MORE DON'T MISS!

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