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Looking for a practical gift to give this holiday season. Why not a gift certificate for electricity or water. Robert talks with Terry Torres, who's the director of residential customer service for the Orlando Utilities Commission. Torres says they're offering gift certificates in denominations of $10, $25 and $50 to give to parents, grandparents, neighbors, and college students. The recipients of the certificates redeem them by including them with their bills. According to today's Wall Street Journal, gift certificates are also available for utility payments in Nashville, Tennessee, Norwich, Connecticut, and Kissimmee, Florida. You can visit the Orlando Utilities web site at http://www.ouc.com.

Banning Eyre reviews the new CD Post Scriptum by young Portuguese singer Cristina Branco, who specializes in a traditional form of music called "fado." The word "fado" means "fate" and fado songs are typically expressions of yearning, lost love, separation and angst. Branco did not grow up in the poor neighborhoods of Lisbon, which is home to fado music; she happened to discover the style as a teen-ager 10 years ago, and is now one of the singers helping to bring about a fado revival. Cristina Branco's CD is Post Scriptum, on Harmonia Mundi USA. For more info contact: www.harmoniamundi.com

A new podcast — Imperfect Paradise: The Forgotten Revolutionary — tells the story of a Chicano student-led protest movement in California, and organizer Oscar Gomez's mysterious death.

In the 1950s Dickie Goodman took bits of pop songs, cut them up like a collage with voices telling wacky stories of flying saucers and gave birth to a new form of novelty records. Goodman continued making these records until the late 1980s and they became small time capsules of culture. Jon Goodman has an appreciation of the "King of Novelty." (6:15) Jon Goodman's book is called The King of Novelty. Jon Goodman's CD of novelty tunes is called 25 All-time Novelty Hits and includes some of Dickie Goodman's work. See http://www.varesesarabande.com.

Sharon talks with Indian classical singer Shweta Jhaveri about her new recording, Anahita, which means "Sounds From The Other World." (Intuition Music & Media/INT 3509 2) We also hear from Lee Townsend, who produced the album. Townsend, who has produced artists Pat Metheny, Charlie Hunter, and Bill Frissell, brought in San Francisco Bay Area jazz musicians to accompany Jhaveri for this east-meets-west fusion album. (7:45) For more information about the recording: www.alula.com or call 1-800-932-5852.

In The Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea, veteran foreign correspondent Steve LeVine writes about the high-stakes political gamesmanship over control of the rich oil resources in that region.

Journalist Kate Kelly attracted international attention for her three-part series on the collapse of investment bank Bear Stearns. The story ran on the front pages of The Wall Street Journal in May 2008; now she's written a book on the subject.

Scientists say there are too many horses and the land cannot support them all. But some believe the horses should be left to run free.

We, too, are here for it.

We break down the sounds the musical powerhouse explores in her latest project and how Black artists have long been excluded from the genre.