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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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Archives for 2009

Scrubbing the Floor With My Daughter Cinderella

September 4, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

cover of the vhs version of the disney movie, cinderella

There was no getting around it. Christina, who is 51/2, intended to wash our kitchen floor. She had been studying her “Cinderella” videotape for weeks, and now she wanted nothing more than to scrub. Read more

GodsBigBlog: Does a Teacher Have the Right to Wear a Muslim Headscarf? A Nun’s Habit? A Sikh’s Turban? Not in Every State

September 3, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Three states still have laws on the books prohibiting public school teachers from wearing religious garments in the classroom.

GodsBigBlog: Hunger in America — It’s Real

September 3, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

My writer colleague Laura Willis reports from Sewannee, Tennessee, that the economic crisis is hitting people pretty hard in the Southern Cumberland Plateau. Hundreds of people stood in line for hours to receive food . . . .

A Case of the Human Condition: Flowers Bursting From the Dirt — How Do They Do It?

August 31, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

pink camellia blossom california. photo by bf newhall

They emerge from mud, manure, leaf rot, earthworms, sow bugs. And they are beautiful. How do they do it? Read more.

A Generation of Preschoolers Trapped in Their Yards

August 28, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

A suburban street without a sidewalk. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Jon and I loved our new house in the hills with the curving, no-sidewalks streets. But all that privacy and rural ambiance weren’t so great for raising kids. Read more.

A Case of the Human Condition: In Your Face Orchids

August 24, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Magenta orchid growing in orchid farm in Thailand. Photo by BF Newhall

Stupendously, outrageously beautiful orchids. Read more.

Mad Men Exposes the ’60s Girdle — But Will She Get It Off in Time?

August 21, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

two women wearing 1960s Spirella Sarong girdle with sign "happiness is a flat tummy."

You can’t fool me. I know a girdle when I see one. A stewardess on Mad Men did a strip tease — but how was she going to get that girdle off without turning hot sex into farce? Read more.

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ON THE FUNNY SIDE

Those Wild and Wooly Pandemic Hairdos — Tales From the Covid Shut-Down

wild and wooly pandemic hair woman-with-pandemic-hair

I thought the flawless, pre-covid Nancy Reagan coiffure would fade away, and the wild and wooly pandemic hairdos would prevail. Wrong!  Read more.

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Jon Newhall sitting on our deck quietly, seen through a window, with trees. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall

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