Friendship

The story behind the iconic "Christina's World," Andrew Wyeth's painting of Christina Olson perched in a field facing her home, is one of poverty and disability. That story unfolds in the new book "Andrew Wyeth: Christina's World and the Olson House" (Rizzoli) by Michael K. Komanecky and Otoyo Nakamura. The book also chronicles Wyeth's decades-long friendship with the Olsons of Cushing, Maine, and the controversy surrounding the preservation of the house he made famous. What's even more fascinating than the text, though, are the dozens of sketches and paintings by Wyeth and old photographs of Christina Olson,...

Try as I might to leave this Liberty Mutual lunacy behind - the $50 million annual pay packages , the fleet of five corporate jets , the rampant conflicts on the board of directors, the $4.5 million renovation to the chief executive's suite - someone keeps drawing me back, and that someone is Deval Patrick. I can't get a remark of the governor's out of my head. The Globe had revealed that recently retired chief executive Ted Kelly made nearly $200 million over the past four years, that company planes constantly flew to airports near Kelly's vacation homes, and that the top nine...

Q. I had a best friend (of 20 years), and we used to gab on the phone every day during high school and college. We maintained a good degree of communication for a few years after graduation. Two years ago, he was promoted and things suddenly stopped. He didn't answer messages and very rarely sent them himself. I asked him what was going on, and he said he was just busy. To my knowledge, he works a standard 9 to 5 job. I work seven to eight hours a day, myself, plus two hours of commuting, and I still have time to do many things, including recreation, calling friends, and helping out relatives.

By Amanda Ostuni, Globe Correspondent Janet Sheerin calls her 88-year-old mother, Mary Amicangelo, a "people person. " So, after Amicangelo's husband died last September, Sheerin wanted to make sure there were people, other than family members, in her mother's life. Enter AgeWell West Roxbury, which has allowed Amicangelo to interact with other elderly people, as well as younger volunteers, in a series of programs designed to help seniors stay in their homes and remain independent and connected to the community.

LAST WEEKEND golfers and nongolfers alike could not help but be swept up in the majesty of the 70th Masters championship, described vividly by the Globe's Sports staff . Anyone who watched Sunday's rounds had to be touched, as I was, by a story of friendship and competition. Normally, golfers are so very sober that to suggest that theymight even want to talk during a round of golf would constitute a mortal sin. Even a smile can be dangerous. So to watch Phil Mickelson and Fred Couples, both of whom dearly wanted to win the tournament, walk from hole to hole talking, laughing, and...

The Cat Who Walked Across France Written by Kate Banks, illustrated by Georg Hallensleben Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 40 pp., all ages, $16 Why Mole Shouted and Other Stories Written by Lore Segal, illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 40 pp., ages 5-10, $16 "The Cat Who Walked Across France" -- what an irresistible title. And the book itself begins invitingly, mysterious as a cat: "For many years the cat had lived in the stone house by the edge of the sea. " The feline hero, and sole proprietor of the story, lives a safe and quiet life.

WARSAW - To him, she was "My Dear Dusia," and he signed his letters "Br," short for brother. She was one of a handful of people by his bedside when he died, and visited him in the hospital when he survived an assassination attempt. In the cloistered universe of the Vatican, Pope John Paul II had a woman friend with whom he shared spiritual thoughts in a series of letters that spanned the decades. Now she is defending her recent book of correspondence with the pope against criticism from church officials that she "exaggerated" her friendship and could delay the late pontiff's...

The third time I was a bridesmaid (I’ve been one two more times since then), I was sea foam with envy. It was the wedding of one of my college roommates, who, in addition to being a dead ringer for Uma Thurman, has a PhD in neuroscience and the world’s sweetest disposition. In the vows they wrote, the bride and groom gushed about how lucky they were to have found someone who loved them unconditionally – someone who made anyplace home – someone who was their best friend.

Q. I’m a 34-year-old woman who had a close personal friendship with my co-worker “Norma,’’ who is 46. After five years of friendship, Norma has become more than just a dear friend — she’s a mentor and an older sister-mother figure for me. I have grown to depend on Norma’s friendship perhaps more than I should, which brings me to my problem. I have been in an unhealthy relationship for three years, and Norma has been my support and confidante through it all. She always urged me to leave the relationship.

A Blessed Event By Jean Reynolds Page Ballantine, 326 pp., $22.95 Jean Reynolds Page can spin one heck of a tale. What's more, that her debut novel won me over is a testament to the power of her storytelling. In the interest of full disclosure, let me confess my East Coast prejudices. A couple of pages into Chapter 1, red flags went up: the small Texas town, the surrogate pregnant best friend in a coma, the oughttas, gonnas, gottas peppering the dialogue, the abusive father, a heroine named Darla.

The author of a best-selling book on one West Texas high school's football season has penned an e-book focusing on his friendship with one of the team's players. H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger's earlier book, "Friday Night Lights," focused on Odessa's 1988 Permian Panthers that lost in the state semifinals. It also took a harsh look at educational, economic and social problems in Odessa. It eventually was made into a movie and also inspired a TV show. "After Friday Night Lights" is about Bissinger's years-long friendship with Boobie Miles, a running back who blew out his knee in a 1988...

NEW YORK - The two young men had woefully little in common: one was a wealthy Mormon from Michigan, the other a middle-class Jew from Israel. But in 1976, the lives of Mitt Romney and Benjamin Netanyahu intersected, briefly but indelibly, in the 16th-floor offices of the Boston Consulting Group, where both had been recruited as corporate advisers. At the most formative time of their careers, they sized each other up during the firm's weekly brainstorming sessions, absorbing the same profoundly analytical view of the world.

IN RESPONSE to Maria McDermott's reaction to the popular book, "The Hunger Games," not only was I astonished by her ability to abridge vital information in literature, but I was disappointed by the absence of any reference to key concepts and themes in this noteworthy book, such as friendship, loyalty, and most important, hope ("Shocked to read what young people are flocking to see," Letters, March 30). What McDermott failed to mention in her letter, which emphasized only the violence, was that soon after the riveting and suspenseful scene she...

Q. I'm 16 years old, and I have two best friends, "Krystina" and "Tayler," who mean the world to me. Lately, Krystina has been full of drama. She often says she feels left out and hurt. But, Annie, we never do anything without including her. Recently, she's been pulling this whole "you guys never tell me anything until two weeks later" thing. But I usually tell her everything at the same time I tell Tayler. She even knows stuff about me that Tayler doesn't. But she claims that Tayler tells me personal things that she doesn't repeat.

Q. I had a best friend (of 20 years), and we used to gab on the phone every day during high school and college. We maintained a good degree of communication for a few years after graduation. Two years ago, he was promoted and things suddenly stopped. He didn't answer messages and very rarely sent them himself. I asked him what was going on, and he said he was just busy. To my knowledge, he works a standard 9 to 5 job. I work seven to eight hours a day, myself, plus two hours of commuting, and I still have time to do many things, including recreation, calling friends, and helping out relatives.

WATERTOWN - French playwright Yasmina Reza has an undeniable gift for shrewd social observation. Would that she possessed a matching gift for dialogue. As an admirable cast bickers its way through Reza's "Art" at the New Repertory Theatre under the direction of Antonio Ocampo-Guzman, an unwelcome thought keeps crowding into the mind: This is not how real people talk. Not even the kind of over-educated, over-analytical, overwrought men who natter on like Frasier and Niles Crane after one too many cappuccinos, arguing about the merits of a painting that is...

The author of a best-selling book on one West Texas high school's football season has penned an e-book focusing on his friendship with one of the team's players. H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger's earlier book, "Friday Night Lights," focused on Odessa's 1988 Permian Panthers that lost in the state semifinals. It also took a harsh look at educational, economic and social problems in Odessa. It eventually was made into a movie and also inspired a TV show. "After Friday Night Lights" is about Bissinger's years-long friendship with Boobie Miles, a running back who blew out his knee in a 1988...

Q. "Ellie" and I have been friends for nearly 50 years. We have been through much together, even though we live in different states. However, we have never been able to discuss politics or religion since we are diametrically opposed in these areas. I long ago accepted that limit on the friendship. Recently, I invited her to visit for three days to see a special art exhibit, attend a cooking class, and have dinner with my friends here. We had a great time until she went on a political diatribe one evening while we were watching the news.

The high-protein single-serving Fit to Go cottage cheese from Friendship Dairies in New York (99 cents for 5 ounces) works well in a grab-and-go lifestyle. Pick from among 1 percent plain, 1 percent with pineapple, 1 percent whipped, 1 percent no salt added, and more. This is small curd cottage cheese with nothing artificial, very pleasing in taste, texture, and consistency for cottage cheese lovers. And it fits in your purse. Just add a spoon. Available at Stop & Shop Supermarkets.

Q. I recently ended a relationship with a wonderful guy. Let's call him Mr. Green. He was my stab at "green dating" (the recycling of ex-boyfriends) after my marriage of 15 years ended. Mr. Green contacted me out of the blue via Facebook almost a year after my breakup, and we reconnected there. We spent the past two-plus years in a relationship that I knew was doomed from the start. I was honest with him from the get-go. I am not interested in ever being married again or even living with another man. I enjoyed his company, and he was great with my kids, but the same issues we had...