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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

My Ever-Changing Family

Our family shrinks and grows. People die. People get born. People get mad and won't talk to you for a while. Kids grow up and find partners of their own, and pretty soon there are brand-new in-laws. And a grandchild or two.

The Mother-in-Law Diaries: A Groom’s Dinner at a Place Called the Bachelor Farmer

June 11, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 4 Comments

The Afghan Room at Minneapolis' Bachelor Farmer restaurant is covered with colorful afghans. A groom's dinner took place there in May, 2013. Photo by BF Newhall

 

The wedding ceremony was going to be a simple one, so there was no need for an actual rehearsal. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t have ourselves a rehearsal dinner. Read more.

The Mother-of-the-Groom Diaries: The Day Before the Big Day

June 8, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 7 Comments

Bearded groom wearing purple necktie and vest with tux at Mens Wearhouse. Photo by BF Newhall

In a little more than twenty-four hours our son Peter would be a married man. But first, he and Jon had to pick up their wedding duds. My outfit was already hanging in the closet. Read more.

The Mother-of-the-Groom Diaries: They Did It. They Got Married

June 6, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 5 Comments

A Minneapolis bride and groom with a young cousin, May, 2013. Photo by BF NewhallThey pulled it off. They got married. They said their vows. They were pronounced husband and wife in Minneapolis on May 25.

A Dad, a Mom and an 8-Year-Old With a Bashed Lip

April 11, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 7 Comments

eight-year-old boy smiling up from a swimming pool. photo by bf newhall

At 7 on a Saturday night, eight-year-old Peter came home from the park with a lip the size of a ping-pong ball. He had been hit by a hardball on the fly. I wanted to take him to the ER. Jon said no, it was just a fat lip. Read more.

Grace Falconer Perlmutter Kleis — How to Be a Glamorous Gal at Age 98

February 2, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 12 Comments

A glamorous red-head with her great nephew

My aunt was tall, red-headed, blue-eyed, self-sufficient and glamorous at a time and place when most women in her hometown wanted nothing more than to get married, have babies and put up green beans and blackberry jam. Read more.

No Words

January 11, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 5 Comments

By Barbara Falconer Newhall I’ve got no words today. I’m out of town visiting a sick — very sick — aunt. And I’m pretty sad. The hospice nurse is not optimistic. My mother and father are gone. Jon’s mother and father are gone. My aunt is the last of the aunts and uncles on both sides […]

Confessions of a Nintendo Mom: The Day I Unplugged My Eight-Year-Old

January 4, 2013 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 6 Comments

Ten-year-old Peter Newhall with monitor showing Nintendo game he has just won. Photo by BF Newhall

Like any normal person with a job, two kids and a front yard full of weeds, I had been sleeping in on a Sunday morning – until the sound of Jon and Peter playing the new Nintendo woke me up. I burst in on them. “HEY. YOU WOKE ME UP.” No answer. So enraptured were they with their dratted boomerangs and Oktoroks they didn’t care that they had wrecked my beautiful Sunday morning sleep-in. I stomped back to bed, covered my head and cried. Read more.

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ON THE FUNNY SIDE

Tales From the Pandemic Shut-Down — It’s Been Three Years

tales from the pandemic shut-down: covid-19-warning

Memories of the strange and frightening months of quarantine are fading. Is it time to retell those tales of the pandemic shut-down?  Read more.

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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!

Maroon snapdragons growing in a garden. Photo by BF Newhall

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A gray American domestic cat has curled up atop a 1986 TV set being used as a computer monitor in a home office. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Mom With Kids — The Home Office Blues

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