One way of communicating to everyone that you're "in the know" is to refer to people not by their bylines, but by their IRL nicknames. Everyone will know you're a poser if you don't call A.O. Scott (pictured) "Tony."

The New York media scene is a bitchy place. Most people are quick to dismiss early success as dumb luck and/or good connections. But the fact is, at the highest levels, practically everyone has leveraged some kind of connection. Is having your father get you an interview more odious than having a friend from college…

Margaret Seltzer, the pretend gang member who wrote a fake memoir about her made-up life, is one more liar who is simultaneously ruining the memoir genre and making it more popular than ever. Sarah McGrath, daughter of New York Times writer-at-large Charles, is also taking the fall as Seltzer's bamboozled editor.…

Veteran newsman Chip McGrath is former editor of the New York Times Book Review and currently a writer-at-large at the paper. His son is New Yorker staff writer Ben McGrath; his daughter is Riverhead editor Sarah McGrath, who hit the headlines recently as fake memoirist Margaret B. Jones' editor.

1. Hear Norman Mailer and New York Times Book Review Editor Charles McGrath at the New York Public Library.
2. View Edwin Dickinson's "salon" paintings at the National Academy of Design.
3. Try the tuna/tomato-basil sushi rolls at Brasserie 360.