• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • WRESTLING WITH GOD BOOK
  • CONTACT

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

Barbara Falconer Newhall

Sue Johnson’s Lamps and Shades — Works of Art From a Little Shop in Berkeley

November 9, 2012 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 10 Comments

A hand-blown glass lamp by Lindsay Art Glass. Photo by BF Newhall

On Solano Avenue in the far north reaches of Berkeley, California, a modest storefront softly glows, luring me in every time I pass by. It’s Sue Johnson’s custom lamp and shade store.

Photo Op: Yosemite Rocks — And Sometimes It Rolls

November 2, 2012 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 2 Comments

Glacial erratics piled on a sloping rock at Inyo National Forest, CA. Photo by BF Newhal

 

The big rocks and cliffs at Yosemite are spectacular, but so is the smaller stuff — the boulders, rocks, stones and pebbles that litter every inch of the 12,000-square-mile national park. I’m especially partial to the glacial erratics.

Walk 1000 Miles Around Lake Michigan? She Did It — Now I Don’t Have To

October 26, 2012 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 21 Comments

Loreen hikes alongside Lake Michigan snow drifts. Niewenhuis photo

Walk around Lake Michigan . . . the whole thing. I’d start in late spring and finish up in the fall. And when I was done, I’d write a book about it. Lucky for me, Loreen Niewenhuis beat me to it.

Will Our Kids Grow Up to Be Cheaters Like Lance Armstrong?

October 20, 2012 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 4 Comments

Peter Newhall looks up to catch the baseball. Photo by BF Newhall

Will my kids grow up to be cheaters? Is it possible to raise honest children in this Pete Rose-Bernie Madoff world — where something like 50 percent of students admit to cheating? Read More

Belief Is Seriously Overrated — You Don’t Have to Be a Believer to Believe

October 14, 2012 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 7 Comments

Peter Newhall at St. Vincent Catholic church, Pentwater, MI. Photo by BF Newhall

Some of my family members were uneasy at the thought of standing up at my mother’s memorial mass to read from the Bible, a document they didn’t believe in. I told them I thought belief was seriously overrated.

The Somethingists — They Don’t Believe in God, but They Do Believe in . . . Something

October 10, 2012 By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment

[caption id="attachment_1163" align="aligncenter" width="427"]The Helix Nebula. NASA Photo. The Helix Nebula. NASA Photo.[/caption]

Good news for those of us – count me in – who aren’t at all sure of what God is like. It’s called Somethingism. Read more.

The Rise of the “Nones” – Young Americans Are Doing Without Church

October 9, 2012 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 1 Comment

Rose window from interior of the National Cathedral, Washinton, DC. Photo by BF Newhall

 

I was in Bethesda, Maryland, for the annual Religion Newswriters Association conference last weekend. Here’s what I found out about the religiously unaffiliated in America. Read more.

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 89
  • Page 90
  • Page 91
  • Page 92
  • Page 93
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 117
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

GET MY Riffs on Life BY EMAIL

True stories often told through a humorous lens–because you just can't make them up!

We respect your privacy and do not share your email with anyone.

 

LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

‘The Lifespan of a Fact’ — Fun Words, Now Playing in Berkeley

the-lifespan-of-a-fact

Good natured but dead serious, “The Lifespan of a Fact,” raises questions that writers of nonfiction are constantly asking themselves.  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!

Willis Tower, Chicago. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Scaling the Mighty Willis Tower — With My Acrophilic Husband

Oakland artist Hannah Woebkenberg sits in front of a sculpture she made of pantyhose. Photo by BF Newhall

Oakland’s Jingletown: Arts, Crafts, Cool Kitsch — And Cookies

Lisbon-cathedral-crucified-christ

A Meditation for Holy Week: An Afterlife Where Time Does Not Exist?

A live Christmas tree with lights, garlands and presents stacked underneath. Photo by BF Newhall

We’re Having a — Merry — Christmas Without the Kids This Year

MORE DON'T MISS!

© 2009–2025 Barbara Falconer Newhall All rights reserved. · Log in