Discussion groups provide socialization

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
In recent months, some friends have wished for forums in which to discuss subjects deeper than restaurants they've loved and summer vacation one-upmanships. What about a salon specializing in literary history?
People around the country have had the same idea and done something about it, according to The Wall Street Journal. Discussion groups are the latest kind of intellectual socializing.
Perhaps it's friends gathered over cocktails and cheese. It's colleagues meeting at a coffee shop. It's hosted by museums, bookstores and colleges. They talk politics, theology, the Middle East or nuclear disarmament. They are, the Journal says, the new incarnation of book clubs and the good news is, no books.
One reason is that pollsters are finding Americans more tuned in to what's going on in the world, the Journal says. On the downside, the conversations can get a little tense. But when everyone agrees, where is the fun?