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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

A Case of the Human Condition: Would My Husband Like to Add My Name to His?

May 29, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 19 Comments

Jon and I had been married nearly 12 years. It was time to pop the question again. I had taken his last name as mine. Would he like to add my maiden name to his?

What’s Rhetoric? Let My Two-Year-Old Enlighten You

May 25, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment

My daughter Christina discovered the art of rhetoric when she was being weaned from baby bottle to plastic cup. She’d say, “I want milk and I don’t want it in a cup” — an elegant illocutionary statement that usually got her what she wanted, her bottle.

A Case of the Human Condition: Jane Johnston Schoolcraft and the Indian I Wanted to Be

May 22, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 1 Comment

Growing up in Michigan, I read “Hiawatha,” but I was never exposed to the poems and stories of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, a nineteenth-century Ojibway Indian from the Upper Peninsula. I was culturally deprived.

A Case of the Human Condition: When a Young Mother Dies

May 18, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 5 Comments

a young mother dies. Beverly Bondy Rose on a trip to Children's Fairyland, Oakland, 1988.

In the months and years before she died of breast cancer, Beverly Bondy Rose created a safe and loving place for her little daugther and the people around her. Read more.

A Case of the Human Condition: The Day She Popped the Question

May 15, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 8 Comments

Things were getting serious. My boyfriend had moved his goldfish into my apartment. I had returned from a long weekend to find that Jon had moved his dimestore pets from his place to mine. He was sheepish about this.

Brutality Begets Brutality, That’s Why Torture is Not OK — An American POW’s Story

May 12, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 1 Comment

[caption id="attachment_1047" align="alignleft" width="303"]Halle, Germany, today with its castle and the Salle River c 2009 Stadt Halle, Salle Halle, Germany, today with its castle and the Salle River c 2009 Stadt Halle, Salle[/caption]

I’d like the forty-nine percent of Americans who say torture is sometimes justified to hear the story of an American POW who survived a brutal forced march during World War II. My conclusion: Brutality begets brutality. Read more.

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ON THE FUNNY SIDE

We Are Pushing 80 — Do We Stay Out of Supermarkets? Sheltering at Home Day 5

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At age 79, should my husband stay out of supermarkets during the COVID-19 pandemic? He’s used to making daily trips for groceries. 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!

laptop-shut-down

My Deceased Husband’s Laptop — I Fixed It Myself!

a bookshelf of books from many religions, including buddhism, taoism, christianity, judaism and islam. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Coleman Barks and Rumi — What a Few Lines of Poetry (and a Witch) Taught me

president barack obama giving speech in cairo, 2009. sentinel photo.

The Rhetorician in the White House — Or, How I Learned to Love the Passive Voice

Family photos in frames on bedroom dresser. Photo by BF Newhall

Feng Shui Tip for the Writing Room and the Bedroom — Your Mother’s Not Allowed, and Neither Are the Kids

MORE DON'T MISS!

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