• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • WRESTLING WITH GOD BOOK
  • CONTACT

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

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

October 2, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 11 Comments

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 8 Comments

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 14 Comments

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.

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

September 5, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 2 Comments

A white and cream wool shawl with long fringes handwoven by Mary Helen Blohm. Photo by BF Newhall

I wrote about my outdoorsy cousin Jeanie a couple of weeks ago. This week it’s my artsy cousin Mary Helen’s turn. She weaves gorgeous rugs from fabrics she gets at yard sales. Read more.

Photo Op: Pentwater, Michigan — A Small Town on a Big Lake

August 29, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 9 Comments

North Hancock Street, Pentwater, Michigan, with shops, flags and trees. Photo by BF Newhall

When I was a kid, Pentwater was not the place to be. The place to be was on the beach or in the woods with the wild critters. But now that I am thoroughly grown up, I’m preferring the charms of Pentwater village to the toads and grasshoppers of my 9-year-old self. Read more.

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 95
  • Page 96
  • Page 97
  • Page 98
  • Page 99
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 136
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

GET MY Riffs on Life BY EMAIL

True stories often told through a humorous lens–because you just can't make them up!

We respect your privacy and do not share your email with anyone.

 

LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

There’s a Pollinator in My Pollinator Garden

woodland-skipper-butterfly

The columbine, the statice and the armeria had been planted only a week earlier, but already there was a pollinator in my pollinator garden.  Read more.

MORE "ON THE FUNNY SIDE"

CATEGORIES

  • A Case of the Human Condition
  • My Ever-Changing Family
  • On Writing & Reading
  • My Rocky Spiritual Journey

 
Need some levity? Push my Funny Button!

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!

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

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

adoptive-family

A Baby to Adopt — The Letter That Made It Happen Forty Years Ago

Tw0-year-old girl giggles with bottle in crib. Photo by BF Newhall

The (Two-Year-Old) Rhetorician at Our House

Cover of the book "The Abundance" by Annie Dillard. Photo by Barbara Newhall

At the Feet of Annie Dillard, Memoirist, Essayist, Observer of the Real

MORE DON'T MISS!

© 2009–2025 Barbara Falconer Newhall All rights reserved. · Log in