I took a class in ad writing at Pratt Institute when I was twenty-four. I lasted one day. One of my classmates came in on the first day with storyboards for a commercial for a truck. The teacher, a dignified man in a stylish, floral-patterned shirt, asked the student whether they could talk during the break. The teacher offered the student a mint, and ate one himself, then tried to explain that he taught print-ad writing. The truck-commercial student would not hear it. He was so enthusiastic about his work that the teacher gave up and let him present…