Flickr user Jeffery Turner

But it got us thinking about tipping etiquette. New York City is fueled by service industries -- stats from 2011 and 2012 say we've got access to 13,270 licensed taxis, 16,251 full-service restaurants, and 2,657 bars. Add that to the countless delivery people, doormen, bathroom attendants, tattoo artists, hair stylists, bellhops, and, of course, coat check guys (sigh), and you've got thousands of workers who you're supposed to tip on a regular basis.

How to keep track? And, more importantly, what's the proper amount to tip for various services?

Rees, a former full-time political cartoonist, is like the Liam-Neeson-in-Taken-2 of pencils. No matter what you throw at him, not even hundreds of dangerous international crime-lords, you can't break him.

I came into the workshop wanting to make fun of it, but as it turns out, Rees, the satirist, already made it funny. Some critics and pencil-purists accuse him of mocking the craft , but as it turns out, he knows a shit-ton about pencils and how to sharpen them.

He actually has a pencil-sharpening business, through which he's cranked out more than 800 pencils to customers world-wide.

All you need is Saran Wrap.

Whether you go with the tried-and-true or the never-before-attempted, here are some tips for orchestrating a successful trick:

Each and every day, you send me pitches for stories that you hope I'll bite on. Some are quite good. A few are excellent. Most, however, don't interest me in the least. I try my best to answer as many pitches as I can. If, for whatever reason, I'm not interested, I try to find the time to send a very brief message thanking you for your submission and politely turning you down. I simply don't have time to explain the reasons why I can't take your story. Sometimes, I'm too busy to say anything at all.

If I do turn you down, please don't take it personally. There are many different reasons why I can't take your story, and even some stories with a lot of merit won't get chosen.

But for the sake of your career -- this really is a small town, after all -- it's best not to reply to my rejection with the kind of message I received from a freelancer earlier this week.