Diners Club must return to its roots and be a genuine club -- not merely by conferring special privileges, but by facilitating conversation among members, by ceding certain decisions to members, by furnishing physical and virtual clubhouses for members -- and not least, by giving members a reason to feel proud. Only then will the paid ad messages truly resonate.

Because of the near absolute freedom of political speech, politicians are free to fill the airwaves with lies. Some are trivial, some are shocking, but they are the currency of modern politics. In advertising and in person, virtually all candidates -- regardless of party -- abuse our most sacred right in order to smear their opponents with blatant mischaracterizations of their records, their statements and their motivations.

This article is not about the frontiers of media and marketing. It happens to be about a new book, published this week, titled "Bedfellows." You and I together can participate in the grand experiment. This is an exciting time, and now you can have a proprietary stake in a (middlebrow) literary event. You're online now. You've got the links. Check it out.

Averages can mislead. When analyzing social-sentiment data, the friendly tweet can steer you wrong, but beware even more of the simple mean.