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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
  • MY EVER-CHANGING FAMILY
  • WRITING & READING
  • MY ROCKY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
  • WIDOWED
  • FUNNY BUTTON

Barbara’s Riffs on Life

A Manners-Challenged Kid Who Became the Apple of His Grandma’s Eye

May 22, 2010 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 4 Comments

Small children with grandmother on Lake Michigan beach. Photo by BF Newhall.

“Move,” said my 6-year-old son Peter to his grandmother. “I want to get by.” My mother looked up from her book and gave my son a hard look. Read more.

The Hagia Sophia: Where Christianity and Islam Coexist — and Clash

May 8, 2010 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 26 Comments

The Hagia Sophia -- Madonna with roundels, Muhammad & Allah. Photo by BF Newhall

As an American Christian, I’d never known how it feels to have my faith’s most cherished symbols obliterated by a colonizing force. Until I entered the Hagia Sophia. Read more.

Why I Can’t Write My Memoir — Not the Part About My Mom Anyway

May 4, 2010 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 3 Comments

Leg cast for a woman, 92, with broken hip. Photo by BF Newhall

Driving home the other day from just one of countless visits to my mom at the hospital, I had to ask myself , why aren’t I writing about her? Read more.

Small Boys: Reading, Writing — And Yucky

April 24, 2010 By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment

A 7-year-old boy makes a yucky  face by stretching his mouth wide. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Let’s face it. Kids, some kids, naturally love raunchy jokes and faces. There’s one living at my house who loves everything yucky. Read more.

Wait for Me! (Keeping up With the Twenty-Somethings)

April 17, 2010 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 5 Comments

wait for me, I cried out to the speedy young woman dressed in pink and gray running clothes as she sped ahead of me. Photo by Barbara Newhall

 I was a tiny preschooler, pumping away on my tricycle, near tears because the big kids were leaving me behind. Today, I was a lot older — and left in the dust again. Read more. 

The Trouble With Daffodils — and My Writing

April 11, 2010 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 9 Comments

Solo yellow and white daffodil. Photo by BF Newhall

The trouble with daffodils is they have no subtext. They are all cheer and sparkle and optimism. They are avatars of perky. They get on my nerves. Read more.

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LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

A Case of the Human Condition: Four-Year-Old Girls — The Last Bastion of Pretty

four pretty preschool girls in tutus at the ballet barre. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Pink dresses. Powder blue dresses. Dresses with nosegays, kitty cats and sunbursts. Are little girls the last hold-outs for pretty these days? Read more.

MORE "ON THE FUNNY SIDE"

CATEGORIES

  • A Case of the Human Condition
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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!

Jack Shoemaker of Counterpoint Press spoke at the Oct. 5 meeting of Left Coast Writers at Book Passage, Marin. Photo by Barbara Newhall.

Jack Shoemaker of Counterpoint Press Shares Fifty Years of Book Publishing Wisdom

gravestone-jon-newhall

Widowed: It’s Been a Year and He’s Still Gone

A multi-colored, mostly red hand-woven rug with fringe by Mary Helen Blohm. Photo by BF Newhall

Rugs, Afghans and Scarves — My Pentwater Cousin Weaves Them All

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

Why Meditate — When I Could Be Sweeping the Garage?

MORE DON'T MISS!

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