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Barbara Falconer Newhall

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

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Barbara Falconer Newhall

A Case of the Human Condition: Choose Me, Please!

March 16, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment

Jury summons. Barbara Falconer Newhall was summoned for jury duty.. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Jury duty is a lot like fourth grade softball. Something in me wants to be on the team. If there is choosing going on, I want to be among the chosen. Read more.

Book Openers: The Emerging, Emergent Church — What’s Up Next for Christianity?

March 13, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment

“About every five hundred years the Church feels compelled to hold a giant rummage sale,” Phyllis Tickle writes in her new book, “The Great Emergence.” In the two thousand years since its founding, Christianity has reinvented itself several times.

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

March 5, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 2 Comments

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 […]

A Case of the Human Condition: James Dean’s Last Day — Video with CHP Officers on the Scene

March 1, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 1 Comment

The highway patrol officers on the scene of the car crash that killed James Dean are interviewed in an excellent new video, along with the officer who cited Dean for speeding hours before his death.

A Case of the Human Condition: Even Barbie Has to Turn Fifty Sometime

March 1, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment

Barbie doesn’t look it, of course, but this month the busty, slim-hipped fashion doll turns 50. Read all about it in Mary Jo Murphy’s article  in today’s New York Times. Posting here tomorrow — “Dolls and Daughters,” what happened when my daughter, then seven, and I tried to play with her Barbie.

Geoff Machin — We Go Looking for God, When We Could Be Having a Beer

February 27, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 1 Comment

Geoff Machin -- science is obvious. God, not so much. The Sombrero Galaxy, NASA. NASA & STScI photo. copyright@stsci.edu

Humans are the only living things that know they exist & ask why. We’d have more fun if we didn’t ask so many questions, just go to the beach & have a beer. Read more.

A Case of the Human Condition: The Day James Dean Died — The Eyewitnesses to Speak on February 28

February 26, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 2 Comments

Fans of the legendary film star James Dean will meet face-to-face the CHP officer who was first on the scene of the car collision that took Dean’s life as well as the officer who ticketed Dean for speeding just before his death.

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ON THE FUNNY SIDE

Travel Adventures: The Poop on China – And the Pee

In Suchow, this little boy was set out on the doorstep of his house to pee, To expedite things, his pants were open at the crotch. I have preserved his dignity by retouching the photo to close up his fly. Photo by BF Newhall

I’ve been contemplating writing this little photo essay on the toilets of China ever since I traveled there last September. It’s taken me all this time to overcome my mid-century Midwestern upbringing, where nice people didn’t talk about poop and pee in public. My nose for news finally prevailed, however when a Mainland Chinese couple allowed their toddler to urinate publicly on the streets of Hong Kong.

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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!

4-year-old-girl

Old and Getting Older — The Octogenarian and the Four-Year-Old

Peter Newhall at the wheel of the family car, read to take his first solo drive. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Revisiting My First Blog Post Ever — How the Selective Service Made a Man of My Son

Copy of a painting of Madonna and Child by Benozzo Gozzoli, 1420-1497. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall

Visions of the Baby Jesus Light Up Centuries of Art

Lucille Ball with red lipstick and hair

My Upper Lip and Other Sorrows

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