“Keep your money,” I told them. “No charge for the work done thus far. Good luck getting someone to put this together in Word, because I happen to know that’s all you got” (less acerbic in the actual communiqué).

I added, more tactfully, that we all wanted the same objective, a professional-looking printed product. Acknowledged that my language had been intemperate, adding that this was because I held myself to the same high standards to which (laying it on with a trowel) the industry group holds itself. Repeated, with a friendly shrug, that we could part amicably.

The figleaf was of sufficient surface area for the other side to fold itself face-savingly beneath it. And so to work.

cordially,