No, the title of this column refers not to some dubious in-flight activity of a physical nature, but instead to the expansion of media offerings increasingly available on overseas flights these days.

Sometimes I'm forced to hire a sitter for Jango, my 85-pound golden retriever. Last week I sojourned to San Francisco to deliver an OMMA addressable television lecture -- eleven-year-old son in tow -- and my wife off to Saratoga friends visiting. When I contacted our reliable sitter for the usual -- three walks and an overnight -- she mumbled to me (shoulders slumped, eyes grounded) that there would be a price increase. Her $65 a day all-inclusive rate was mushrooming to $100. "Why?" I asked. "The price of gas," she guzzled.

If my inbox is any indication, addressable advertising is a hot topic in media buying and selling circles. I have taken the liberty of presenting several questions sent to me via email last week along with my opinion on the respective topics.

So, I got in this morning from a week on the left coast. Exhausted and drained, I am happy to report that I am definitely encouraged....

I spent the better part of last week discussing addressable advertising with media buyers and their advertising clients. Targeting was a contentious topic. Some advertisers were convinced that the key to success would be found in sorting set-top boxes by their viewing behavior characteristics, while others wanted to combine real-time viewership data with Experian-style database matching. Still others wanted the ability to reach only those viewers of specific programs within Zip+4 geographic clusters. While I agree that targeting is the key to mainstreaming the technology, it is the unintended consequences of such a promise that are most intriguing.

So, The Hollywood Reporter publishes The Top 40/Film list weekly. I was perusing the numbers and analysis bytes that highlight the winners and the losers when something made me stop and think. The caption pointed to the 61% drop in the weekend gross of "Wanted," stating that this was "a big sophomore drop, even for an action pilot." A 61% drop is always a bad thing (unless it relates to the price of oil). But as I started to think about it and put ALL the numbers together, I was sort of irked at this casual comment. Let's look at …

The visual: a small bird is calmly nesting a giant, giant egg that is perched on the bough of a tree. Another small bird is standing across from the nest on a separate branch of the same tree. The caption -- as spoken by the inquisitively standing, small bird: "So! When's the big day?" This visual sparked my thinking about the substance of the official Project Canoe birth, when David Verklin arrives as chief navigator of the aquatic vehicle in early August.

For me social activism first became relevant during the summer of 1981. It was the last weekend before my junior year in high school and my girlfriend had returned from her vacation in New York City with two magical video tapes -- 120 minutes of music television, courtesy of MTV. The network promised to shatter my isolation and launch a young, vibrant cultural link between Cedar Rapids, Iowa and the rest of the country. No longer would I be stifled by the limited music available on radio stations and record stores in my hometown. My MTV experience would be identical …

It begins with a piece that I believe is important that everyone read -- an op-ed in the New York Times called, "Would You Buy a New Car From Eva Longoria?" No, I don't really care if you would or wouldn't -- but I want to bring your attention to the reference to new legislation proposed by the Federal Communications Commission. As the notice released by the FCC on June 26 states, the commission is seeking "comment on current trends in embedded advertising and potential changes to the current sponsorship identification regulations with regard to embedded advertising..."

My 2-year-old TiVo's hard drive died an unexpected death a while back, and after several dreadful weeks without any time-delay TV to watch, we broke down and purchased a new box. Although the new model is not the super-fancy TiVo 3, I am discovering that there are many more TiVo features available than I had previously realized. I was seriously underutilizing the functionality of my TiVo!