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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

Betty Rollin on How to Talk to a Widow

December 3, 2022 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Betty Rollin on what to say to a widow. I say ask her about her new rock-garden-path

Betty Rollin on how to talk to a widow: Betty says don’t assume she’s over it just because a year has gone by. I say, ask me about my garden. Read more.

An Urban Oasis: Keeping It Wild — And Fire Resistant

November 26, 2022 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

trimming-tree-urban-oasis

Beaconsfield Canyon was blighted with trash and invasive species — until its human neighbors took it upon themselves to restore their wild urban oasis.  Read more.

Widowed: I Get to Have It My Way Now

November 19, 2022 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

widowed I get to have it my way now, including this Mid-century-4-poster-bed

Jon is gone. He has forfeited his right to have a say in things. Now that I’m widowed. I get to have it my way, 100 percent of the time.  Read more.

Widowed: ‘Let Us Tend Our Garden’

November 12, 2022 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

let-us-tend-our-garden pussy-paws-plant-california

Translating Voltaire for my backyard: “We must cultivate our garden,” feels bossy and rife with certitude. I prefer, “Let us tend our garden.”  Read more.

Widowed: My Husband Keeps Dying on Me

November 5, 2022 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

pandemic-shut-down-recumbent-bike

It’s been a full eighteen months since Jon’s death, but even now my husband keeps dying on me.  Read more.

How to Describe My Late Husband? I Can’t Find the Words

October 29, 2022 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

2017-eclipse-of-the-sun

How to describe my late husband? I can tell the Jon stories, but when it comes to evoking the singularity that was Jon, words fail. Read more.

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ON THE FUNNY SIDE

‘Read Me a Story, Mommy, But Not That One You Wrote’ (Or,The Nicest Thing My Husband Ever Said to Me)

1986 home office with computer monitors, toddler and sleeping cat. Photo by BF Newhall.

To save money, management had cut my hours back to one day a week. I did what every self-respecting writer does when she’s ticked off at the world. I sat down at the keyboard – and wrote. Read more.

MORE "ON THE FUNNY SIDE"

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  • 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!

 

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Unmarried and (Probably) Pregnant in Mid-Century America

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Instead of My Toys, They Played With Peanut Shells

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We’re Not Immortal After All . . . Good to Know

MORE DON'T MISS!

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