Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall riffs on life as she knows it.
I’m Barbara Falconer Newhall and I’ve got an incurable Case of the Human Condition. And since you do too, I’m counting on you to laugh and cry along with me as I riff on life as we know it . . . Below you'll read about my creaky, old fifties house, my forays into home gardening, my shopping stories, my spectacularly low-fashion wardrobe -- and more.
I feel bad about my lip. My upper lip. Nora Ephron felt bad about her neck, a body part she made famous back in 2006 with her book I Feel Bad About My Neck. Nora also felt bad about her frizzy grey hair, parched skin, incipient mustache, flabby upper arms, and tendency toward belly fat. She was getting older.
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.
On Solano Avenue in the far north reaches of Berkeley, California, a modest storefront softly glows, luring me in every time I pass by. It’s Sue Johnson’s custom lamp and shade store.
Some more wonderful stuff made of clay by three artists featured in the show, "Local Treasures: Bay Area Ceramics," at the Berkeley Art Center through Nov. 18 — Wanxin Zhang, Ted Fullwood and Clayton Bailey. Read more.
Here’s some help with the pot-growing argot in Heather Donahue’s book, "Grow Girl."
Hey, everybody! Come take a look at my updated website — lots of great stories and pretty good pictures.
Genealogically speaking, I’m not that far removed from Scotland. My father’s father was born near Glasgow. But the complex – presumably – set of beliefs and customs he and his parents brought with them to the shores of Lake Michigan in 1873 are lost to me now. Tartans have given way to Levi’s. Haggis has succumbed to pizza and Chinese take-out. When I think about where I come from, I do not think of Scotland. I think of Michigan. Read More.