C2 Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger


EZ SU


KLMNO THE RELIABLE SOURCE


Mother knows best L


ike any first-time author who’s just birthed a newbook, Graham Moore has been trying to calm the nerves, keep it together.


“I’mallowingmyself one checking a day” of the


reviews and the sales stats, the author of the just- released “The Sherlockian” told us. “One Amazon check, and one Google check.” And like any first-time author—aw, heck, all commonalities break down after that.Moore, a 28- year-old who looks a decade younger, is the rare newbie writer whose genius idea (modern-day SherlockHolmes buff solves the murder of an Arthur Conan Doyle scholar) had multiple agents vying for his manuscript . . . and the rare author of any kind whose first book party was hosted at the vice president’s residence. It’s amomthing:Moore is one of the two sons of


RICHARD LEIBY/THE WASHINGTON POST


First-time author GrahamMoore, left, who penned “The Sherlockian,” watches with his mother, Susan Sher,Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, as Jill Biden toasts him at theNaval Observatory.


Susan Sher, Michelle Obama’s chief of staff; and it seems no matter how high-powered your own job is, if you're a mom, you’re going to brag about your sons. That’s howMoore’s book came to the attention of Jill Biden, whoWednesday night welcomed a couple of dozen guests to the


seasonally bedeckedNaval Observatory (green swaths, pine cones, white lights, gold ornaments). “Every time your mother would talk about you,


she would just light up,” Biden said, toasting Moore. “And you dedicated it to your mother!” Blushing yet, Graham? Sher was up next. “It’s a


page-turner,” she said, “but it’s more than that.” Not that the guests (Sonia Sotomayor, Valerie


Jarrett, Kathleen Sebelius, Alan Greenspan, Howard Fineman, MarkWhitaker, Christopher Hitchens) could get their hands on it at the moment: You can imagine the ethical complications if they were to set up a cash register next to a stack of books at an executive mansion. Moore, while giving his own toast, was startled by Vice President Biden himself creeping down the stairs behind him. The veep apologized for his late entrance: “I know it’s an old excuse, but I was on the phone with the president.” But let’s remember who matters here! When you


write a book,Moore said: “It turns out the coolest part is that yourmomis so proud of you. Basically, every day. It’s all about your mom.”


FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2010


“It’s like those flowers that wilt in front of you in time-lapse films.”


Sarah Jessica Parker, 45, on watching herself age, in the January issue of Elle.


Boehner rises above potty politics Femalemembers of Congress will


finally get their own restroomjust off the House floor — and just when the lines were about to get shorter anyway! Speaker-to-be John Boehner


announcedWednesday night that he’s ordered the Architect of the Capitol to transformspace currently occupied by the Office of the Parliamentarian into a women’s restroom. Until now, only congressmen have had a bathroom break convenient to the House floor; femalemembers have had to trek across Statuary Hall to their loo in the CongressionalWomen’s Reading Room. Ah, he wants themback in their seats faster for votes, huh?


Boehner called it a “long overdue”


change “as we continue to open up the people’s House.” (A House committee last spring explored potty parity across all federal buildings,


even for non-elected bladders, but the legislation hasn’t gone anywhere.) Female senators got a restroom


John Boehner wants equal-opportunity toilets; Cathy McMorris Rodgers gave birth again.


next to their chamber back in 1993, after the so-called “Year of theWoman,” when their numbers went fromfour to seven. The number of congresswomen has more than doubled since then — though it’s actually poised to dip after the recent elections: 71 femalemembers in the 112th Congress, down from76. How inconvenient has the walk


through Statuary Hall been?We thought the perfect person to ask would be Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the first woman to give birth twice while in Congress. But she was still laid up after delivering child No. 2 on Wednesday — a daughter, 8 pounds, 4.5 ounces — and was unavailable for comment.


ROB CARR/ASSOCIATED PRESS G O T A T I P ? E - M A I L U S A T R E L I A B L E S O U R C E@WA S H P O S T . C O M . F O R T H E L A T E S T S C O O P S , V I S I T WA S H I N G T O N P O S T . C O M / R E L I A B L E S O U R C E For $12.50, she took home one of Roy Lichtenstein’s early gems BY JACQUELINE TRESCOTT As a young girl, Enid Liess rode the “L”


to theArt Institute of Chicago everyweek for classes. Afterward, she wandered throughthemuseumforhours. Her eye was trained early to recognize


good paintings, and she knew what she liked. When she was redecorating her Milwaukee apartment in the 1960s, she went to an art auction at her temple and sawawork that spoke toher. “If youwantme, I can tell the story in a


free-flow way,” said Liess one recent morning, 45 years after that auction. “At Temple Sinai they hired a young


manwho knew the local art scene but not the national scene,” she said. “I saw this painting and I loved it. It was whimiscal, and I loved the earth tones.” Liess, 74, is small and trim,wearing a brightmagenta sweater with a dainty bow at the waist over a black shirt and black slacks. “My husband had said I could buy up to $25. I wasbiddingandmyfriendjumpedupand said$25.50. I couldhave boppedher.” The bidding eventually escalated to


$27.50, split between the two friends, and Liess received the painting as a house- warming gift. What she bought for her contribution


of$12.50was “TheStatesman,”paintedby Roy Lichtenstein in 1951. Liess, who was not familiar with the then little-known artist, hung it above a nonworking fire- place intheir apartment. As ithappened,Liess continuedher art


education, attending lectures and devot- edly reading the stories on art in Time magazine. Shemade a binder of the arti- clesandkept themforyears. “Twoor three weeks later inTime, therewasaspreadon pop artists. They included Roy Lichten- stein. I said to my husband, ‘This is the sameman.’ThenLifemagazinerightafter did a one-man spread, titled ‘Is This the


ROY LICHTENSTEIN/COURTESY OF QUINN'S AUCTION GALLERIES


WorstArtist inAmerica?’ I took thepaint- ing to the Milwaukee Art Museum and then confirmed my artist and Lichten- steinwere the same.” Lichtenstein was one of the seminal


artists of the pop movement, his most famousworkrecognizablebyitssignature comic-strip style and platoons of dots. “The Statesman” depicts a man with a five-sided face, a cap tilted to the side,


arms squared and raised. He’s wearing a jacket that has enormous blotches for buttons on one side and looks slightly colonial. “I realizedithadsome value.His work had staying power. But I had no intention of doing anything with it but givingit tomychildrenwhenIdied,”Liess said. Liess kept the painting in a prominent place after shemoved fromMilwaukee to


UPFORAUCTION: Enid Liess holds “The Statesman,” painted by Roy Lichtenstein in 1951. It will be auctioned Saturday in Falls Church, and the opening bid is $40,000.


Northern Virginia in 1968 with her hus- bandandtheir twochildren.Liessworked as a teacher and school administrator for 37 years. The couple lived modestly, put- ting aside funds for annual family vaca- tions, continuing to take adult education classes in art and music and buying art that caught their eyes. Eight years ago, a disaster befell the


family.Liess’s son-in-lawbecame too ill to work. With financial help from her in- laws, Liess’s daughter continued to run the Atlanta party store the couple co- owned.However, thein-lawshadinvested with Bernie Madoff and ultimately lost almost everything. Liess’s daughter was forced to close the store and start a home- based business. To help, Liess, then 72, went back to


work part time at a day-care center at the Jewish Community Center in Fairfax County, then did Census Bureau canvass- ing, and thenofficework. This year, a second upheaval. In Febru-


ary, Liess discovered she had breast can- cer.Most of this year, she has been recov- ering fromsurgery and undergoing rigor- ous treatments. She finished radiation threeweeks ago. During the summer she made up her


mind to sell the Lichtenstein. She called MattQuinn, atQuinn’s AuctionGalleries, who looked at it and recognized an early gem. The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation authenticated the painting, for which it has a black-and-white photograph and the artist’s sketch. “I was surprised and delighted that a


work so close to home had bubbled up,” saidJackCowart,executivedirectorof the foundation. The pre-pop painting had some signs of the style thatmadeLichten- stein famous. “He has this continuity of being very engaged, amused and curious about anumber of things,”Cowart said. The 60-year-old painting had been out of sight for almost fivedecades, onlymov-


3The nominees for the 53rd Grammy Awards were announced lateWednesday night with the likes of Eminem, Lady Gaga and Jay-Z leading the pack. But a handful ofWashington area artists made the list, too. Among them: Chuck Brown, the godfather of go-go, whose newsingle “Love” earned the 74-year-old his first Grammy nomination. And hometown R&B hero Raheem DeVaughn was nominated for best R&B album. For more coverage—and to see which artists Click Track’s contributors think will win big at the Feb. 13 awards ceremony in Los Angeles—visit www.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack.


DOONESBURY by Garry Trudeau CUL DE SAC by Richard Thompson


ing from New York’s John Heller Gallery toTemple Sinai to Jerry andEnidLiess. So “The Statesman” is up for auction


oncemore, this timeonSaturdaymorning — Lot 56 at Quinn’s Auction Galleries in FallsChurch.The opening bid is$40,000. “I have very mixed feelings. I’m a per-


son who primarily does not care about things. Artwork is what I have picked to engagemybeing,” saidLiess, sitting inthe auction gallery, her voice strong and steadfast. “But there isnothing Iwouldn’t do for the children.”


trescottj@washpost.com


THISJUSTIN. . . l No surprise: A month after losing the Delaware Senate race, media sensation Christine O’Donnell finally has a book deal. St.Martin’s Press announced it will release the tea party favorite’s memoir and meditation on politics in August. l Aretha Franklin, 68, had surgery Thursday for an undisclosed ailment. In a statement released to the Associated Press late in the day, the Queen of Soul said that the procedure was “highly successful” and that “God is still in control.” Last month, she canceled all appearances until May for health reasons.


Christine O'Donnell


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