Roughly a decade ago I underwent a rite of passage that was necessary to my becoming a full-fledged direct marketing reporter. This rite occurred at the hands of Andi Emerson, the DM doyenne who died recently.
Andi suffered no fools, and early in my career at Direct I must have screwed up the name of the organization she founded, the John Caples International Awards. Her reaction was quick and to the point: