The N.Y. Times reviews the museum dedicated to bubbly sugary refreshment, The New World of Coca-Cola. From a lobby decorated with the corporate mission to a tasting gallery ready for sampling sodas from around the world, the sweet success of Coke is ready for sharing at $15 a head.

Before the big hit “Brigadoon” skyrocketed their careers, Lerner and Loewe staged the musical “The Day Before Spring.” Earlier this year Jim Morgan of the York Theater Company decided to bring it back to life, obtained the necessary permissions, but then discovered that the music was nowhere to be found. A detective story of sorts then ensued. A revival in 1990 had been cobbled together from the sheet music of seven published songs from the musical and the recollections of living original cast members and musical directors. But Morgan and his directors found that score to be “so sketchy as to be essentially unusable.” Enter Mark Horowitz, senior music specialist at the Library of Congress. In 1999 the library purchased a set of Loewe’s documents which he had left to a friend who had in turn left it to someone who put it up for auction at Christie’s. Horowitz provided this treasure trove to music director Aaron Gandy who found that “Every song had a different set of materials that survived.” Gandy pieced it all into a full score and this weekend the curtain goes up on a revitalized “The Day Before Spring” as part of the York’s “Mufti” series.

How do you transport a coin worth $1.9 million across the country? John Feigenbaum dressed down in a t-shirt, jeans, flip-flops and bought a coach seat on a redeye flight to avoid suspicion. He got an unexpected upgrade to first class and stayed awake through the flight, periodically checking to make sure the coin, a 1894 dime, was still in his briefcase. The dime is one of only 24 struck that year at the San Francisco mint for a VIP gift. Only nine are known to still exist. Feigenbaum transported the dime from the seller’s vault in Oakland, CA to the buyer’s vault in Manhattan, and collected a nice commission.

I hadn’t checked in on Peter Gabriel in a while. He’s been investing in digital music distribution, founding and backing We7, a download site with an ad-supported model. The free mp3s are fronted with a short audio ad and you can pay for a version without the ad. Neither version has DRM. Gabriel is currently on a European tour and his WOMAD festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary. He’s working on an album which may be released in 2008. Bonus video links: Gabriel speaking at TED 2006 about Witness, daughter Anna’s Youtube channel.

For the chef who has everything, why not wow them with a gold-handled saucepan decorated with 200 diamonds? Just fork over £100,000 at Harrod’s in London and German cookware maker Fissler will make you one to order. It comes in a jewelry box made of rootwood (similar to burl). A pot like this needs a matching spoon for stirring and brandishing.

In a back room of a small music store in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, owners Steve and Barb Baker send care packages of a different sort to soldiers in Iraq. Operation Happy Note began with one guitar sent as a gift to their son and grew from there, providing musical instruments to over 400 soldiers. They receive 3-5 instrument requests a day and Barb has quit her job to work on the volunteer project full-time. Guitars are popular and novices are provided with lesson plans. They’ve also sent out bagpipes.

Both the Seattle PI and the San Francisco Chronicle have just run articles on coyotes in their respective cities. Coyotes are proving to be quite adaptable to the urban environment, eating mainly rodents, though dogs & cats are frequent targets. Researchers discovered “at least a couple thousand” living in metropolitan Chicago. There are no official records but some in Seattle think the urban population has risen significantly. SF’s Golden Gate Park and other large green zones are likely home to at least half a dozen.

Exciting coverage of the Cardboard Tube Fighting League at Seattle’s Gas Works Park. “The CTFL was created out of a desperate need to better train and arm citizens with cardboard tubes.” The 3-foot-long tubes (similar to what you may find inside a roll of gift wrap) are provided for participants. You cannot stab your opponent, the goal is to break their tube with yours.

There are too many construction projects going on in Bellevue, WA to keep track of, but when we’d drive by the site of the Bellevue Lexus dealership the ever-increasing size of the structure was mind-boggling. What were they planning to do with all that space, park their entire car inventory indoors? The dealership opened this week and it is indeed huge, 275,000 square feet. Inside it caters to its luxury customer base with artificial putting greens, a baby grand piano, escalator, a kids playroom with video games, a lounge with a fireplace, and, of course, free Wi-Fi.

In 2005 Starbucks launched a Chantico, a chocolate drink that failed to capture tastebuds and was off the menu a year later. Now the company is partnering with Hershey’s to create Starbucks branded chocolate products. Hershey’s Artisan Confections Company subsidiary was cited in the press release as the source of the “the premium expertise” for this alliance. So we should expect chocolate on par with the high-end Joseph Schmidt and Scharffen Berger divisions that make up Artisan Confections. However, there’s no word yet on whether they will attempt another chocolate beverage beyond the mocha syrup-laced drinks already on the menu.