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.

Often we hear about boomerang kids, or middle-aged “children” who keep asking their parents to subsidize them. But what happens when Mom and Dad hit you up for a loan?

I don’t bring this up to make you nervous about shopping. Instead, I want to point out that we all have choice about how – and whether – to buy.

A pint of blood, that is. Tuesday, June 14 is World Blood Donor Day 2011. I’m just putting the idea out there, although I don’t expect everyone to rush the bloodmobile van all at once,

In fact, I think you shouldn’t donate tomorrow.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 50 million people in this country are “food insecure,” i.e., they do not have regular access to adequate nutrition. More than 17 million of them are children.

You can help, at least a little.