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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

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.

Widowed: It’s Jon the Old Guy I Miss the Most

October 22, 2022 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

old-man-on-his-deck

Widowed, I miss Jon the old guy of our last years together — when it had become clear we’d be sticking together till death did us part.  Read more.

I’m Thanking People a Lot These Days. Why Is That?

October 15, 2022 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

thanking people, including the man-power-washing-deck

I notice that I’ve been thanking people a lot lately. People — not God, not the Universe, not “the force that through the green fuse drives the flower.”  Read more. 

Scan Those Family Photos — Today!

October 8, 2022 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

scan family photos family-photos-in-boxes-by-year

I have a closet big enough to store 38 shoe boxes packed with photos and negatives. My kids do not. It’s time to scan those family photos. Read more.

Widowed: No Dreary Memorial Brick for My Husband

October 1, 2022 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

widowed memorial-brick-jon-newhall

A memorial brick for Jon in the new neighborhood plaza? Yes, but only if it could also bear the names of the people who loved him. Read more. 

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

September 24, 2022 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

my deceased husband's laptop

My deceased husband’s laptop had become my favorite, fun laptop in the months following his death. But now I couldn’t open it. Read more.

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LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

Armistead Maupin: The Man Who Wrote the Quintessential San Francisco Novel — On a Newspaper Deadline

Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin reads from "The Days of Ana Madrigal" at Book Passage, SF Ferry Building

Army’s assignment was to show up at the offices of the San Francisco Chronicle every weekday morning and produce seven hundred words, give or take. The challenging part was this: Unlike most newspaper journalists, Army did not sit down to his Selectric typewriter fortified with a fat notebook of stats and quotes. Army’s job was not to report the news. It was to make it up. 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!

 

DON’T MISS!

Iceland poppy blooms in an Oakland, CA, garden. Photo by BF Newhall

Photo Op: It’s Blooming Springtime on Our Hill — In March

books on shelf by john gardener, sands hall, strunk and white, noah lukeman, robert mckee, theodore m bernstein, stephen koch, susan shaughnessy. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall

The Writing Room: Two Must-Have Craft Journals for the Literary Writer

I Let the Maytag Man Into the House. And I Here’s What I Learned About Human Nature. Sheltering at Home Week 7

Close up of a blossom of fiireweed on a San Juan Island in Washington. Photo by Barbara Newhall

A Patch of Fireweed in the Northwest — What Color Are Those Blossoms? Do I Need to Know?

MORE DON'T MISS!

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