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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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Barbara Falconer Newhall

In the Garden With the Grammar Geek: Is It Ever OK to Use the Passive Voice?

June 19, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Garden Artisan Jillian Steinberger prunes the camellias in Barbara Falconer Newhall's yard. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Passive sentences can be wordy and vague — or useful. For me, a passive sentence is one that, like it or not, obscures the doer of the action. Read more.

Why Meditate — When I Could Be Sweeping the Garage?

June 15, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I’ve tried meditating a few times – a very few times. Why would I want to sit inside my mind when I could be out in the front yard, snapping dead blossoms off the rhododendron, or in the garage, sweeping away the cobwebs?

GodsBigBlog: What Non-Believers Think of Obama

June 14, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

For the time being, at least, non-believers are okay with Obama’s stance vis-a-vis religion and spirituality. Check out this story on Politico.com.

Early Late Youth Gives Way to Middle Middle Age

June 12, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

When I was twenty, I didn’t want to be thirty. When I was forty, I considered fifty a disaster. And now that I’m sixty-seven I don’t want to even think about sixty-seven, let alone sixty-eight.

A Case of the Human Condition: Swing, Lindy, Fast Dancing — My Kind of Crazy

June 8, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Jon and I spent the weekend at his high school reunion in Southern California. Check out these youtube videos of the dancing from the era.

Why Pray? — Some Thoughts from Karen Armstrong

June 5, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Multicolored Tibetan prayer flags strung on a rope fly at the Himalayan Fair Berkelely 2014. Photo by BF Newhall

Why pray? Karen Armstrong, one of my favorite authors, has some answers for the skeptical. Read more.

A Case of the Human Condition: What Happens When You’re Young, Beautiful — and American — in England

June 4, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall I have a  total of three gorgeous, young nieces. One of them, Julie, went to the famous Ascot races in England last year, with astonishing results. Julie thought she was doing most of the people-watching at Ascot that day. But it turns out that some people were watching her. Before she […]

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ON THE FUNNY SIDE

Mom With Kids — The Home Office Blues

A 1986 home office with computer, crib, toddler and cat. Photo by Barbara Newhall

I liked being shoehorned into a 9-by-11-foot home office with three computers, a telephone, a cat, and a dear husband — most of the time. 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!

Armistead Maupin signs his book, "The Days of Ana Madrigal," at Book Passage, SF Ferry Building. Photo by BF Newhall

Armistead Maupin: The Man Who Wrote the Quintessential San Francisco Novel — On a Newspaper Deadline

A portion of a crazy quilt made in 1971 by Barbara Falconer Newhall of calico fabrics in primary colors. Photo by Barbara Newhall

The Quilt From Hell — Forty-Two Years Later, It’s Still Not Finished

Tinka Falconer on beach at Pentwater, MI, 1982. PHoto by BF Newhall

Tinka Falconer: Her Ninety-Three Years

garden-before-remodel

An Unruly Garden Tamed at Last

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