A Case of the Human Condition

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.

A Manners-Challenged Kid Who Became the Apple of His Grandma’s Eye

May 22, 2010 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

“Move,” said my 6-year-old son Peter to his grandmother. “I want to get by.” My mother looked up from her book and gave my son a hard look. Read more.

Small Boys: Reading, Writing — And Yucky

April 24, 2010 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Let’s face it. Kids, some kids, naturally love raunchy jokes and faces. There’s one living at my house who loves everything yucky. Read more.

Wait for Me! (Keeping up With the Twenty-Somethings)

April 17, 2010 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I was a tiny preschooler, pumping away on my tricycle, near tears because the big kids were leaving me behind. Today, I was a lot older — and left in the dust again. Read more.

A Case of the Human Condition: When a Six-Year-Old Flies Solo

April 3, 2010 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

My mother-in-law was on the phone. Could my 6-year-old son Peter come to Southern California for a week’s visit with her? “A week?” I thought. Could I get along without my little son for a whole week? Read more.

A Case of the Human Condition: Four-Year-Old Girls — The Last Bastion of Pretty

March 27, 2010 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Pink dresses. Powder blue dresses. Dresses with nosegays, kitty cats and sunbursts. Are little girls the last hold-outs for pretty these days? Read more.

A Case of the Human Condition: Spring’s Here — And So Is That Guy With His Camera

March 19, 2010 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall He shows up every spring. Some years we see him. Some years we don’t. He shows up at our house just as dozens of daffodils are showing their bright, ridiculously optimistic faces all over the neighborhood and the show-offy star magnolia in our front yard is glorious with blossoms. Every year he arrives […]

A Case of the Human Condition: How Millennial Are You?

March 13, 2010 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Want to know whether you are a Millennial, a Gen Xer, a Boomer or a Silent Generation-er? Take this test on the Pew Forum website. According to this test, I’m a robust 38 years old. And I only cheated a little — I said I had texted within the last 24 hours. But that’s only […]

Here Comes Another Year!

Here comes another year. Some of us have accumulated a lot of them. My glamorous Aunt Grace had racked up 98 years by the time she left the planet. Read more.