Christmas in Secret

Paul Ciceri

The Christmas season can cause a lot of stress. It's the most over-hyped, over-commercialized holiday on the calendar.

But for Paul Ciceri, Christmas has a very special meaning. He spent 3 years in a Middle Eastern prison known for its disregard of human rights, Al-Wathba prison in Abu Dhabi. It's a dangerous enough place for anyone but even more so if you're like Paul: American, Christian and gay.

Somehow Paul managed not only to survive -- he also found ways to celebrate Christmas with the help of Muslim inmates, despite all the strict prohibitions against such a Christian rite.

• Visit Paul's website to check out his book
• See Paul's prison ID
  

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Bacon Salt

Dave Lefkow - larger >>

A softball to the face and a shot of bourbon with a side of fried bacon - how did this combination lead to the American dream?

Dave Lefkow and Justin Esch were just two regular guys with regular jobs, until one of them mentioned that everything should taste like bacon. Justin had a conversation with his brother at a Jewish-military wedding where he suggested that everyone, including the kosher, should be able to taste delicious bacon.

Justin Esch

Justin is from Telluride, CO, a place where bacon holds a special place in the hearts of many, and the home of a bourbon drink that features a slice of bacon dangling out of the glass like a garnish - the Mitch Morgan.

Justin and Dave got to chatting about what they would invent over a couple of beers one night during a business trip, and Justin said the magic words, "everything should taste like bacon!" One America's Funniest Home Video later, the two began their quest to create salt … that tastes like bacon.

• Visit the Bacon Salt website
• See the Mitch Morgan
  
• Check out the winning video of Dave's son from America's Funniest Home Videos

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Not Another Fruitcake

Berta Scott - larger >>

Everyone's heard the jokes about fruitcake, and no one really seems to like fruitcake. But Berta Scott knows the secret to making good fruitcake - adding more of what you like, and taking out the stuff you don't like. She speaks to Dick about how she got started making fruitcake out of her garage 30 years ago, and she claims her fruitcake is the best. 180,000 pounds of fruitcake later, Berta may be on to something.

• Learn more about Berta's fruitcake

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Carrie's Hair

Last week, one of our producers walked into a story meeting all worked up about her son's hair. Turns out he'd asked a girl at his school to cut it. His mother discovered a gouge missing when she was combing his hair that night. The story got all of us laughing about our own haircut stories. So Dick put the question out to listeners: tell us your childhood hair stories.

David Terry

Artist David Terry responded. He confesses up front to Dick that he was kind of annoying as a kid, and one of the people he most enjoyed annoying was a girl in his class, Carrie. She was beautiful, intimidating and had long, black hair which she draped over the back of her chair. Until David brought his mother's sewing shears to school...

• Check out David's art

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Green Car Wash

Jeff and Lisa Peri

Lisa and Jeff Peri's daughter Kayla spent the first years of her life almost constantly sick. No one seemed to know what was wrong, or how to make Kayla better. Lisa and Jeff were eventually able to connect the dots that their daughter is highly sensitive to chemicals in her environment. That experience put Lisa and Jeff on the road to starting their own business - selling Lucky Earth Waterless Car Wash. It's a fragrance-free cleaner for those with chemical sensitivities. The business is promising, and Kayla is now in excellent health.

• Learn more about their product

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Listener Follow-Up - The Gift and The Giver

Mark Peysakhovich

Mark Peysakhovich moved to tears while listening to Dick's conversation with Chrys Browne, about a time when a gift from her parents embarrassed her.

Mark immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1980 at the age of 10. Soon after his family's arrival in the States, he and his father began taking English classes together. He remembers laughing at his father mispronunciation of English words. Mark joins Dick to tell him how Chrys Browne's story inspired him to call his father all these years later, and apologize.

• See a photo of Mark, his father, and his daughter Sophie

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