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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’s Riffs on Life

Xi’An to TX and Mao to LBJ — I’ve Been Traveling and I’m Back

October 3, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Writer Barbara Falconer Newhall poses with a mock-up of Pope Francis at the Religion Newswriters Association conference in Austtin, 2013. RNA photo

China, Austin, a Religion Newswriters conference — I had a great, traveling September. It started with on my birthday on September 6, which lasted only a few hours because Jon and I were on a plane to Shanghai when somewhere over the Pacific we hit the International Date Line. Read more.

American Hispanics: They Like the Pope, but the Church — Not So Much

October 3, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

A mural dipicting Jesus on the cross is painted on an fuse box next to a telephone at a convenience store in east Austin, TX. Photo by BF Newhall

More news from the Religion Newswriters Association conference I attended in Austin – a Public Religion Research Institute survey of Hispanics in America turned up some surprises. For example, 69 percent of Hispanics in general have a favorable view of Pope Francis, but only 54 percent look favorably on the Catholic Church. Read more.

Who Is a Jew? The Pew Research Center Tackles the Question — And Gets Some Answers

October 2, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

title page of the Bleichrode 1923 German edition of Jewish prayer book. photo by bf newhall

 

Who is a Jew? Before it could undertake its 2013 survey of U.S. Jews, the Pew Research Center had to think hard about what makes you Jewish in twenty-first-century America. It turns out that believing in God is not essential to Jewishness, and neither is being married to a Jewish spouse. Having a sense of humor helps a lot, however . . . Read more.

Shanghai Chic — It’s All About the Shoes in This Skyscraping Town of 24 Million

September 27, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall Young people are flocking to swashbuckling, get-rich-quick Shanghai. Come back soon to see what they’re wearing on their feet. I’m just back from a two-week blitz tour of China and am off to Austin for a Religion Newswriters Association conference tomorrow. There will be plenty to share when I get back. […]

The Lost Poems of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft — A Native Michigan Voice Rediscovered

September 19, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Pine and oak trees growing on a bluff along Lake Michigan. Photo by BF Newhall

In the process of moving their collection, the librarians at the Illinois State Historical Library came across some boxes of old documents. One of them contained a lost cache of writings by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, a little known Ojibwe poet from Michigan. Read more.

Five Things I Like Best About My Kitchen

September 12, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

A stainless steel bar mounted over a ceramic cooktop holds a Tonala platter. Photo by BF Newhall

We remodeled our kitchen in 2000, and we made some design decisions that still make me happy. Read more.

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ON THE FUNNY SIDE

Widowed: Lucky Me, I Told Jon Newhall I Loved Him

Jon Newhall makes dinner at the Newhall house. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Lucky me. I told my husband I loved him while he was still alive. Read more.

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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.

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Author Barbara Falconer Newhall with the four calico crazy quilts she designed for the four grandchildren she hopes she'll have. Photo by Jon Newhall

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