Wearing an unbuttoned shirt covered in tiny retro TVs, Whedon doesn't resemble a Hollywood icon so much as a guy who spent part of the previous day at New York's fanboy festival ComicCon. Where he was, by the way, the star attraction. Along with the various fantasy worlds that he has conjured on big and small screens, Whedon also writes comic books, contributing to hugely successful series like "X- Men" and "Runaways," as well as penning comics based on his own TV shows.

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I've always loved the ritual of holiday browsing, drifting in and out of stores with a vague mission (and an even vaguer list of potential gifts). But in this year of economic apocalypse, shopping has become a minefield -- a financial, political and ethical nightmare. The thrill of insane bargains and the suggestion that we can rescue our economy by spending money is colliding with the nauseating sensation that we should be saving up for a long, dark winter.

As I walked down Manhattan's Fifth Avenue yesterday, I noticed sale signs jostling for space with ornaments in nearly every store window. A line of tourists crowded outside Saks Fifth Avenue to gaze at the elaborate window decorations, but when the doors opened at a few minutes to 10, only a trickle of women actually hustled to get inside. They moved sluggishly through the store, fingering gloves or leather bags and then putting them back down, seemingly unimpressed by the slashed prices. Upstairs on the deserted 8th floor where the expensive shoes live, sale goods (up to 70 percent off) were arrayed on racks that circled the whole department, a mess of less-than-desirable footwear that had obviously been pummeled and picked over for weeks already. I'd been hearing rumors that the hallowed department store might declare bankruptcy in the new year, following in the footsteps of several other chains; standing here, it wasn't hard to imagine.

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"It's at once horrifying and fascinating to witness the degree to which design is being discussed online by people whose concept of innovation is measured by novel ways to tie bows," Helfand confessed. Unable to resist a further jab, she continued: "I could write an entire post just on the scrapbooker's predisposition toward fonts like 'Whimsy Joggle' and 'Pool Noodle Outline' but I will try and restrain myself."

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Impress anyone on your list with the personal touch of a customized canvas (starts at $129). You pick out a background culled from old newspapers, send a photo -- blissful lovers, childhood moment, family portrait, whatever you wish -- and wait until it is transformed into a one-of-a kind canvas.

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How many Republicans does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, if you use these Candela lights ($69 for a set of four), lit by LED rather than bulbs. Rechargeable, graceful and handy, these lights fall somewhere between a candle, a lamp and a flashlight; they can be used indoors and out, to set a mood or just fill in for that light bulb no one ever bothered to replace.

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But there are, of course, other ways to save cash. Home improvement no longer requires endless trips to Home Depot or fiddling with drywall, so if you're buying gifts for someone crafty, you can make them happy with "Stencil 101" ($16.47), a portfolio of 25 stylish -- and reusable -- stencils ranging from the natural (deer and trees) to the ultra-urban (cars and boomboxes) that can add quick panache to an old wall or dresser. Another easy way to teach an old home new tricks: decals. The design world is teeming with stickers such as the removable EZ Stick Blackboard ($20) that resembles a mirror, an imaginary chandelier ($25) or a touch of wrought iron ($60).

For those who like to play with their food, these handmade porcelain bowls and cups ($18-$60), with funky motifs such as Vespa scooters, bikes, knitting needles and vintage cameras, add a sense of wonder to dinnertime, while these striking Invasive Species Plates ($16) offer plenty of food for thought.

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"Ohmygod, that's Rachel Zoe down there!" a voice shrieks behind me. "She's a hot mess. I need to get that picture." He holds up his phone, and then sighs contentedly. "That's going on my blogfeed and my Facebook page!"

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The family saga was widely celebrated for reaching places that few series even contemplated, which is why the stakes are so high for Ball's next foray into television. But instead of probing further into the territory he opened up with "Six Feet Under," Ball has chosen a more whimsical TV project: the oddball genre drama "True Blood," premiering on HBO Sept. 7. Based on Charlaine Harris' "Southern Vampire" books, the new show blends sly humor and gory violence, politics and the supernatural. This is a world where the living drink vampire blood to amp up their libidos, and vamps try to stay out of trouble by drinking synthetic blood (which might already be familiar to you from the show's hilariously ubiquitous viral ad campaign, found here, here and here ); where civic-minded bloodsuckers campaign for undead rights ("we pay taxes, we deserve basic civil rights just like everyone else," one activist tells Bill Maher) while their more brutal brethren stalk the streets of Louisiana in search of their next fix.

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Seeing into the future added a whole new wrinkle in time. Once again, we were disoriented. Each episode taunted us with juicy puzzle pieces, but we could never be sure when events were taking place, or whether they were happening at all. It was as if we were gathering fragments in our skirts and waiting for the moment when we could fit them all together.

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Previous seasons were so packed with luminously lit soap-operatic drama and (inadvertently) hilarious dialogue that each half-hour episode flew by, a pleasurable bonbon with fewer calories than a rice cake. The show pivots around Lauren -- the ultimate reality-TV It girl, so transparent you can barely see her at all. An apple-cheeked Teen Vogue intern, Lauren has for three seasons bravely brooked betrayal by boys she crushed on and by ex-best friend Heidi and her sinister boyfriend, Spencer, who (in case you've been squatting in a cave) supposedly spread word of a sex tape of Lauren to the media . Lauren's true girlfriends rallied round her -- in an endless series of beautifully filmed West Hollywood cafes, boutiques and clubs -- and bucked up her confidence. Not that it ever flagged for too long, because there was always her dalliance with boys like Brody Jenner (who starred in his own short-lived reality show, "The Princes of Malibu," with his ex-best friend Spencer) to keep her aflutter. And for comic relief, there was Lauren's sidekick, the strangely blank Audrina, and her unlikely love interest, a motorcycle-riding lunk considered trash by Lauren's friends, who nicknamed him Justin Bobby.

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In fact, "Guest of Cindy Sherman," which was co-directed by Tom Donahue, feels more like three or four docs fused into one entertaining (and sometimes squirm-inducing) concoction. We get a sidelong view of the art world and its symbiotic relationship with commerce and celebrity, as well as an exploration of the awkward life of a famous person's "plus one." (H-O's own complaints are bulked up by an amusing interview with Elton John's companion, David Furnish.) At the center of it all is Sherman, in a fragmented portrait of a woman H-O calls "the most famous mystery girl of art," a photographer who has used her own image as the basis for a hugely influential body of work.

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In response, I'd mount an impassioned defense of the series' many charms, among them its, well, charm; its witty, brainiac female characters and their emotionally complex relationships; hypercaffeinated repartee worthy of Hepburn and Tracy; and a pop-culture literacy that revealed itself in tiny, often hilarious (if you got the joke) ways. Not to mention the invention of a small-town idyll -- Stars Hollow -- that made even those of us who have no desire to live in a perfect little small town sigh with pleasure. Star's Hollow was a wishful-thinking kind of place, classless and integrated, where everyone worked hard at their little mom and pop businesses but no one really struggled. Where Luke's diner reigned rather than Starbucks, everybody showed up for the town meetings, and an eccentric like Kirk could find endless employment opportunities. In Stars Hollow, "Gilmore Girls" creator Amy Sherman-Palladino once told me, Al Gore was president.

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Was working with your son different from previous recording experiences?

It was very different from previous experiences, but it was also a reminder of when John and I did Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band. It was that kind of feeling. I felt that Sean was very supportive of me, just like John. So there were no sort of silly questions, you know, like "Why are you screaming Yoko?" [laughs]. It was good. Sean and others in the group, Timo Ellis and Sam Koppleman, they're from the now generation, but they found it easy to communicate.

Did Sean absorb your aesthetic sensibility by osmosis? It seems like a mother and son might have a pretty organic bond.

Very organic. But I naturally assumed that when he grows up he would respect his father's work a lot. Never thought he would even listen to mine. I never pushed it or even explained it to him, but then I'm seeing him playing my old records and all that -- I was surprised.

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