So today I spent four hours doing television interviews about the poll that the smart folks at Consumer Reports National Research Center just released concerning all of our holiday shopping plans.

You probably think that four-hour figure is an exaggeration. Not so! This was a so-called satellite media tour, where you talk to local stations in 20+ markets. It's an odd experience, because you sit in a studio by yourself talking to a camera -- but it has to look like you are having a one-to-one conversation with the anchor person at another studio maybe 2,000 miles away.

Anyway, I mention all this just to note that one of the questions that kept getting asked was how consumers were handling their holiday spending this year. Here's a very brief excerpt -- I'll spare you the other three hours and 59 minutes! -- that addresses this point. Just call it my 60 seconds of fame ... ;-)