When the Post gleefully paraded gubernatorial hopeful Carl McCall's letters seeking jobs for family members, many New Yorkers were a little taken aback by their tone (not to mention the use of official letterhead). Sure, this town runs on favors -- but the question is, where do you draw the line?

Peter Post, great-grandson of Emily, business ethicist at the Emily Post Institute: "If you must write a letter, please do it on personal stationery."

Karenna Gore Schiff: "I'm not going to comment, for sort of obvious reasons."

Ed Hayes, trial lawyer: "Friends and ex-girlfriends are fair targets for favors, but kids are not. If you have a child that can't get a job, then you should work on the child."

Evgenia Peretz, writer at Vanity Fair, daughter of The New Republic's Martin Peretz: "Who gave you my name? I can't help you." Click.

Morgan Entrekin, publisher of Grove/Atlantic: "Nick McDonell" -- son of Sports Illustrated editor Terry, who's a close friend of Entrekin's -- "got my attention easier than he would have had I not known his parents. But the quality of the book is what made me want to publish it."

Adam Bellow, son of Saul, author of In Praise of Nepotism (Doubleday, 2003): "You can guess by the title of my book where I stand on the issue. Remove nepotism entirely and what you get at the end of that arc is Lenin and Mao and Robespierre, people who have cut themselves off from all human attachments and represent what they consider to be enlightened principles but have really taken the human dimension out of politics and turned it into something monstrous."

Related:

• Archive: “Gotham”
• Table of Contents: Oct 14, 2002 issue of New York | Subscribe!