not aware of knowing Andy Weir but could presumably Google him(?).

Author of The Martian and "The Egg". I've read "The Egg" it wasn't great, and I've heard stuff about The Martian indicating it wasn't all that great.

how great a brag "I know dead people" would be. It's an inevitable part of old-age that many of someone's best anecdotes and name-dropping connections become dead people.

if it may depend on the dead person? I mean...

I do know dead people... But really it's more that I out lived them the "cred" I get for that.