Val Castronovo writes: Almost one-third of his portraits are of family members, and the ones of his wife, to whom he was extremely devoted, are quite arresting. Portraits were one of the mainstays of his career; he painted them from the time he arrived in the city up until his death. For an artist intent on blowing up the art world and defying convention, he had a quite conventional personal life.

D’Vera Cohn writes: Love only goes so far. Most Americans cast cold water on a central premise of many a song or poem, that each person in the universe has only one true love. About seven-in-ten (69%) people do not agree with that notion; only 28% do. Among those who do agree, men (31%) are slightly more likely to do so than women (26%). Young and old, married and unmarried are equally skeptical.

This statement highlights key findings from the GAO December 2012 report that describes needed improvements in the reliability of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA's) reported medical appointment wait times, scheduling oversight, and VHA initiatives to improve access to timely medical appointments.

Ferida Wolff writes: Who would have thought that hair could be so opinionated? It used to be reasonable, letting me do pretty much what I wanted with it. But then I guess we change in many ways as we age. Ideas we held in our twenties shift with experience and perspective. Foods we loved as teens often become indigestible later on (gluten sensitivity and lactose intolerance have become watchwords for a more mature generation).

Fed Reserve Vice Chair Janet L. Yellen: As an objective of public policy, maximum employment doesn't appear in the US Constitution, in any presidential decree, or even in the mission statement of the Labor Department... the Federal Reserve is the only agency assigned the job of pursuing maximum employment. The gulf between maximum employment and the very difficult conditions workers face today helps explain the urgency behind the Federal Reserve's ongoing efforts to strengthen the recovery.

The Senate is scheduled to resume consideration of the WAVA measure on February 11. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), would authorize about $660 million annually for FY2014 through FY2018 for programs that address domestic and sexual violence in the US.

Roberta McReynolds writes: Once upon a time there was an imperial matriarch who reigned over the Kingdom of Chaos. The queen presided with a stubborn ferocity and insisted on fortifying her castle walls with buttresses of cardboard boxes bursting at the seams with mystifying collections. Here’s the plain truth: your 1942 phone bill is not a valuable antique. No one in your family wants to inherit it.

Julia Sneden writes: I recall that in each instance of our children’s disasters, I held up pretty well until we had gotten to the hospital. As soon as the doctor took over, however, I had to sit down quickly and put my head between my knees. Injuries to sons are not high on my list of good memories. Now that they are grown, I breathe a sigh of relief – or at least I did until I glanced at the youngest’s Facebook page the other day.