Barb Woolard

Presumed InnocentA very high-profile […] “Presumed Innocent”

Pure Religion and Undefiled by Barb […] “Pure Religion and Undefiled”

There’s an old morality tale which has recently made the rounds as a meme on social media. You’ve probably read or heard some version of it, but to refresh your memory, it goes like this:

A fellow was stu […]

Sorry to be so crass, but this is a crisis. COVID numbers are once again on the rise, just as we thought we were heading back toward some version of normal life. July has been a bad month for the virus, leaving […]

Nothing will turn this typically calm, mild-mannered grandma into a raging lunatic faster than knowing I’ve been lied to. I told my children often, when they were still in my home, that their lives would be far m […]

Arthur Miller’s iconic character Willy Loman, in the play Death of a Salesman, lives out before the audience the last 24 hours of his unraveling life–a life that has been filled with disappointment and u […]

“United we stand, divided we fall” is a saying which dates back to Aesop’s fables and which is often reiterated in times when national security seems most fragile. Patrick Henry used it in one of his last publi […]

Among the more unsettling images now the icons of January 6 are those in which the Capitol attackers display symbols representing the Christian faith: signs and flags with such slogans as “Make America Godly A […]

Both Sides: the Dangers of Neutrality[…] “Both Sides: the Dangers of Neutrality”

Words matter. Take the word “burger,” for instance. That word generally means a patty of ground beef, served in a bun, with some variety of toppings and/or condiments. The burger I order at McDonald’s will look […]

Around 25 years ago, my then-husband and I hosted a gathering one evening at our home. We invited several other couples with whom we spent three or four hours eating, talking, and laughing until we cried. As the […]

The long night is almost over, we have awakened from the terrifying nightmare, we have released a loud collective exhale. When I lie dying, on some far-off day, I will remember the scenes etched into my […]

During my sons’ tween-age years, Pee-Wee Herman, a character played by actor Paul Reubens, was frequently on the screen in our house; so my sons adopted Pee-Wee’s favorite retort to an insult: “I know you are, […]

The recent chatter about Donald Trump’s declining mental state and increasingly erratic behavior has me thinking of the legend of Faust. Isn’t everyone? In the classic German legend, an eminent scholar, Fau […]

It was a grand spectacle. It could have been staged by a Hollywood producer. The helicopter landed on the lawn near the majestic staircase, the COVID patient emerged dressed elegantly in a suit and tie, he […]

Have you ever been in a situation when someone was being a real jerk to you, and you tried to  engage calmly and reasonably in a conversation with that person? Then a third person came along and said, “Okay, yo […]

This weekend, as I mourned along with the rest of the world Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing, I watched the movie “On the Basis of Sex.” Twice. Grieving the loss of this intelligent, passionate, and a […]

I’ve done my share of grumbling about the postal service. There was the mail carrier at my long-time home in Florida who consistently put my mail in neighbors’ boxes and neighbors’ mail in my box or occas […]

If you’re reading this article in 2020, you will notice that many of the specific facts are outdated: Hillary Clinton as Donald Trump’s political opponent, the disgraced Jerry Falwell Jr. as a leader respected […]