THE ME DIEM IS THE MESSAGE -- Following this week's unveiling of Publicis' new new media unit--Denuo--Madison Avenue is rushing to trademark a wide range of ancient dialects. "It's a fresh idea," boasts Stephen Feuling, making an obvious allusion to the English translation of Denuo, a Latin word, which means, well, "afresh.

IS TORINO HAUNTED BY GHOSTS OF NBC'S OLYMPICS PAST? -- Has NBC lost its Olympic soul? That's the impression you'd get after watching the first week of coverage of the Torino Winter Games, a puerile, testosterone-infused prime-time sports highlights show that seems to be leaving out the most important clip of all: the spirit of the Olympic Games. When did snowboarding - especially the extreme sport of boarder crossing - become the preeminent Winter Olympics competitions? Could it be that NBC Sports is that enamored by ESPN's X Games that it is trying the recreate it's own, international version.

IT TAKES AN iVILLAGE - The financial press are all a-blather over the fact that yet another Internet property is on the block, but seems to be having trouble attracting suitors willing to sustain supposed online market valuations. Ironically, that property, late 1990s start-up iVillage, is currently trading at just under $8 a share, giving it a market capitalization of about $560 million.

I'M OKAY, YOU'RE OK!, BUT WE'RE STILL NOT BUYING YOU, OKAY? -- At a time when big marketers are demanding assurances that their agencies are being completely objective when deciding what media to place their ads in, an untimely legal squabble between Martin Sorrell's WPP Group and a British publisher is providing a rare public view of just how cozy agencies sometimes get with the media they're responsible for buying.

OH, THE COMMERCIALS YOU'LL SEE -- Know why Ameriquest's Super Bowl commercials were the two most replayed in TiVo households? Because people didn't know what to make of them. They were funny, but confusing, which is probably why a panel of ad industry pros surveyed by marketing services conglomerate ICOM deemed them the, "funniest spots, but for a brand I forgot.

LIFE IN A SUPER BOWL -- We don't know about you, but we can't wait until Stupor Monday. Not because we'll have the day off due to a new federal holiday some are championing for--National Super Hangover Day--but because we've just about had it with all the hype surrounding the Superlative Bowl.

THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM BEHIND CW -- Does anyone else find it ironic that the first big move CBS makes after being deconsolidated to unlock market value, is cut a deal consolidating something to unlock market value? Surely, the broadcast network business was in need of some consolidation, but we haven't witnessed anything like this since the DuMont network signed off in 1956. If anything, the trend in broadcasting has been more, not less.

TELL A VISION -- It seems the new CBS may have more vision than we first gave it credit for. Just to prove it, CBS has made Vision an official operating unit within its new media empire.

GOING PUBLIC -- What with a relatively strong economy and an even stronger stock market (if you exclude last Friday, that is), it's becoming quite fashionable to go public again. And we don't just mean IPOs.

2006 PREDICTIONS--PART I - When something big happens in Media Town, it is always big news in the media, so we were not surprised by the coverage devoted to New York's mass transit strike. What did surprise us was the apparent disinterest in another big story: the protracted work stoppage of Real Media Riffs.