Here’s something interesting happening tomorrow. News of this has been spreading around the Internet. If you’re so inclined, this could be the climax of your holiday season … so to speak.

The 10 biggest advertising stories of the year? As judged by AdAge? Sure. Right here.

It was my birthday the other day (thank you, but the TIME accolade was enough, thank you), and I was interested to note that for all the years of talk of personalization in the email marketing world, only two companies acknowledged my special day.

Now it’s not like I don’t get email from companies. On the contrary. My AOL account, which is where most of this stuff goes, currently boasts in excess of 500 messages, probably 50 percent of which are commercials. (The rest? Newsletters and discussion lists, plus the odd family correspondence.)

Given all the junk mail I see over the course of the year, and given how many speeches Peppers and Rogers have given over the years, I would have expected to see dozens of birthday emails when I logged on.

But alas, only two. So who got it right?

Cigar.com (which offered me a $10 discount on any order) and Borders (which honored me with 15% off any one item, plus a free dessert).

A good stogie, a good book and a bite of pastry. Hmmm, doesn’t sound too bad, come to think of it.

This Digital Media Wire story is headlined the “12 Unwritten Rules of Cell Phone Etiquette,” which is something of an oxymoron, since they’ve now been written down. And be honest: Haven’t we all tried #4 once or twice?

TIME magazine delivers what could be seen as the ultimate expression of one-to-one marketing for its Person of the Year Issue. This comes 24 years after the magazine named the computer the Machine of the Year.

Do we all get a free copy of the issue? A congratulatory letter? A celebratory dinner? How soon before TIME starts selling commemorative covers of this issue with the ability to insert your face or blog or Web site onto the cover (for just $19.95, plus shipping and handling).

Sorry, TIME, I appreciate the gesture, I really do. But it strikes me as a weasly choice, and it looks liike it strikes you the same way. From the AP article: “If you choose an individual, you have to justify how that person affected millions of people,” said Richard Stengel, who took over as Time’s managing editor earlier this year. “But if you choose millions of people, you don’t have to justify it to anyone.”

So I finally get my due, but it comes without justification. Damn. Well, at least I have something cool to mention in my obituary (“…and in 2006, he was named TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year.”).

Maybe they were just afraid of a spelling malfunction had they gone with Ahmadinejad. But I suppose he’s included, too, since he has a blog like everyone else.