On Wednesday night FishbowlNY friend Sue Shapiro launched her new memoir ''Only As Good As Your Word,'' at McNally Robinson Booksellers in Soho. The book chronicles her odyssey through the mentors that helped her navigate choppy waters of the New York literary and magazine worlds. Among the mentors are Helen Stark, the former Librarian of The New Yorker, Outside Contributing editor Ian Frazier, and journalist Harvey Shapiro.

At the reading, Susan Shapiro read a scandalous story of how she got The New York Times magazine to add a very risque quote from controversial publisher Judith Regan. Harvey Shapiro was, at the time, the editor of the magazine and accepted Sue's story for publication in the July 1994 edition. Sue read from the book on Wednesday:

''My profile of Judith Regan was illustrated with a picture of her in a regal white gown, looking like Joan of Arc, standing next to a lion. A second photo showed her staring adoringly at (Rupert) Murdoch, her boss and obvious replacement daddy. I was pleased that one I was pleased that one R-rated anecdote survived. Regan told a story about being arrested and strip searched in Utah in the late 70's allegedly for making an illegal left turn. Represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, she sued, won, and said proudly, 'You can no longer get fingered for minor traffic violations in Utah, thank you Judith Regan. I pointed it to Harvey, who thought 'fingered' meant nabbed, so he'd left it in. When I told him her original phrase had been 'finger fu--ed' he laughed heartily, but told me to keep that little factoid to myself.''

(image via cnbc)