In search of a rhyme When Stephen Sondheim writes, he looks at a blank wall. Lying on the couch where he has created some of his best-known Broadway musical scores, he tunes out the world beyond his New York brownstone. With his back to a stained-glass window featuring an image of a ship at sea, he trains his gaze across the room onto an empty alcove painted black. He occasionally walks a few steps to the Baldwin piano that Leonard Bernstein helped him to get at a discount decades ago. The composer-lyricist then picks up one of his yellow legal pads. On such pads he's written the lyrics, or the entire score, for the street gangs in "West Side Story," a grasping stage mother in "Gypsy," a blood-thirsty barber in "Sweeney Todd," and many others. Recently, Mr. Sondheim has been at work on a book, "Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes," an annotated compilation of lyrics. The second volume is expected next October. But the writing has always been painstaking. "A lyric doesn't have very many words in it, so every line is like a scene in a play," he said, "and that means every word is like a passage of dialogue." For instance, when crafting the opening number for "Sunday in the Park with George," he phoned the show's librettist to discuss a reference to a "dribble" of sweat on his heroine's neck as opposed to a "trickle." He went with "trickle" because it seemed less comic and better fit the moment. On rare occasions, knowing who would sing the song helped inform how he wrote it. In "A Little Night Music," for instance, many lines of "Send in the Clowns" end with short sounds, like "rich" or "bliss," because the show's star, Glynis Johns, was a breathy singer not known for holding long notes. Mr. Sondheim has occasionally drawn ideas from a woman he dubs his "Muse," someone he refuses to identify who has offered him advice as well as phrases and words that have found their way into his music. When he lost faith at the start of "A Little Night Music," calling the musical too frothy, the Muse convinced him to do it. But much of his inspiration has nothing to do with muses and other romantic notions. He relies on a 1936 edition of the Clement Wood rhyming dictionary that he has rebound at least twice and filled with his notes, as well as a 1946 edition of Roget's Thesaurus. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304173704575578693578734542.html

Eyeing the remains of his last year's Thanksgiving meal, Charles Phoenix noticed everyone took a sliver of each pie—cherry, pumpkin and apple—and some cake. "I was inspired," he says, "to combine all my family's traditional holiday desserts into one." Days later, the 47-year-old Los Angeles resident created a "cherpumple," a three-layer cake with an entire pie baked into each layer—a cherry pie baked inside a white cake, a pumpkin pie baked inside a yellow cake and an apple pie baked inside a spice cake. He stacked the layers and sealed them with a coat of cream-cheese frosting. Mr. Phoenix made a YouTube video of his experiment, and a star was born. "It both intrigues and horrifies people," says Mr. Phoenix, who collects photos from bakers who have attempted to make the cake. It "puts the kitsch in kitchen." See recipe for the monster pie at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304316404575580630406169718.html

The American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) occurs in 17 countries: Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Panama, United States, and Venezuela. The American crocodile is the only true crocodile found in the United States. The American crocodile and the American alligator are easily distinguishable. Crocodiles in general have much narrower heads than alligators, and they are further characterized by a pronounced fourth lower tooth, which is visible when the mouth is shut. See images and range map at: http://people.wcsu.edu/pinout/herpetology/cacutus/index.html

Most reptiles have a three-chambered heart consisting of two atria, one variably partitioned ventricle, and two aortas that lead to the systemic circulation. Crocodilians have an anatomically four-chambered heart, but also have two systemic aortas and are therefore capable of bypassing only their pulmonary circulation. Also, some snake and lizard species have three-chambered hearts that become functionally four-chambered hearts during contraction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptile
Note that mammals and birds have four-chambered hearts.

A fringe of motorists across the U.S. are ditching cars for retired three-wheeled utility vehicles. They troll websites and government auctions to find used models that they can get for between $500 and $7,000, depending on model, condition and upgrades. Margie Bell, who works at a Crayola crayon plant outside Nazareth, Pa., uses her bright-yellow three-wheeler, which once belonged to the New York City Police Department, to pull Crayola-theme floats in holiday parades. The idea started out as a joke. In 2007, she wanted a fuel-efficient car and said, "Heck, I'd even drive one of those meter-maid cars," says her husband, Roland Bell. That night, he found one on eBay that the two bought for $1,900. Some people turn used meter-maid vehicles into hot-dog stands and ice-cream trucks, says Daniel Lanigan, a dealer of specialty concession equipment in Bridgeport, Conn., who sold a three-wheeler-turned-hot-dog-cart for $7,000 last month and has another for sale. Alec Bennett, a San Franciscan who owns five used three-wheelers, has created a website, sillylittlecars.com, for fans of the trikes. The three-wheelers are "the greatest city cars," he says. They're cheaper than autos and are covered by inexpensive motorcycle insurance, says Mr. Bennett, a photo-booth builder by profession. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703585004575604883465682458.html

There are two new ways this year to honor the everyday sacrifices of our men and women in uniform: "Art of the American Soldier," at Philadelphia's Constitution Center, features 200 never-before-seen works--the exhibit runs through January 10, 2011. The Air Force Art Program is celebrating its 60th anniversary with more than 250 works on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio through December 31, 2010. The Army exhibit at the Constitution Center opens with a display case full of the tools that a soldier takes to war: gun, ammunition belt, canteen. Alongside these are the tools of the artist—sketch pad, pencil—and this quote from World War II soldier-artist Edward Reep: "Many times I painted and sketched while a battle raged." See much more at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704353504575596372485457464.html