My friend and fellow MSN Money columnist Liz Weston really, really dislikes gift cards. She despairs of a world in which a shopper grabs a dozen plastic rectangles from the supermarket’s “gift card mall” and does a mental butt dance: Woo hoo! I’m all done my holiday shopping!

That image bothers me, too. Gift-giving should not come down to, “How fast can I get this over with?

Yes, I know you’re busy. So are a lot of people. But must generosity be reduced to a time trial?

That said, I think that gift cards can make good presents. It’s the intention that matters.

If you’re looking for a $100 head start on holiday shopping, be sure to enter the giveaway sponsored by Consumerism Commentary. The deadline to enter is 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19. You can enter up to five different ways.

Since getting my candy/jelly thermometer from Amazon.com recently I have learned a new and entirely dangerous skill: making caramels for Christmas gifts.

I know they are dangerous because:

• Somebody had to scrape out all candy that stuck to the saucepan, right?
• I couldn’t in good conscience give a gift without making sure it tasted OK.

Yesterday I went into a drugstore and found several aisles completely stocked for Christmas: lights, ornaments, wrapping paper, toys, candy and, of course, traditional sacred images such as Mickey Mouse wearing a Santa hat. Sigh.

While too-early Christmas marketing and commercialism in general both bug me, I am also practical enough to acknowledge they exist — and to help a reader stretch his/her dollars to the utmost. That’s why I’m happy to announce a giveaway sponsored by the Consumerism Commentary blog: a $100 Amazon gift card, just in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Greetings from the City of Brotherly Love, where I arrived on only three hours’ sleep after flying all night. There’s a reason that ticket was only $264 RT — it was routed through Houston instead of going Seattle-Philadelphia nonstop.

I lived in Philly for a couple of years, and then in South Jersey while working in Philly until I left the region for good in 1984. Already I’ve relearned three things:

1. Humidity makes me feel as though I’m being mopped. Seriously: It feels like wet strings are touching me at all times.
2. Lightning and thunder are awesome. Also scary, if you’ve mostly been away from them for three decades.
3. No matter where you sit, stand or lean, someone has probably urinated there.