Royal Carribean’s The Oasis of the Seas barely fit underneath the Great Belt Fixed Link (a Danish bridge) on its maiden voyage. The ship is five times larger than the Titanic and features telescopic smokestacks that can be lowered for tight situations. As the world’s largest cruise ship it has the superlative amenities to match its title for 6,300 passengers. One of the four pools has high-dive platforms. There’s a skating rink and a small golf course. A bar in its “Central Park” neighborhood moves between three decks. Built in Finland, it cleared the Great Belt bridge with a half-meter to spare.

When the Boston Globe set out to expose the splendor of college presidents’ homes this past summer, only Wellesley College president Kim Bottomly allowed them access to her house. An often historic campus residence is a perk for many private college presidents. The Globe sought to juxtapose their luxurious accommodations against staff salary freezes, program cuts, and layoffs. They were left to glean what information they could from online real estate sites on house values and observations from staff and students, mostly on the homes’ exteriors. President Bottomly was careful to point out that she was merely a custodian of the 1854 house which is frequently used for college events.

When I visited the L.A. Times site a few days ago, the Connecticut highway of my childhood was up on the front page. The Merritt Parkway was recently added to the World Monument Fund’s watch list and the L.A. Times article discusses the balance between preservation and safety for this beautiful and, yes, old-fashioned highway. It’s a charming countryside thoroughfare that doesn’t exist in L.A., which I guess is what makes it of interest in a place where you can spend several hours of your day in a smoggy eight-lane freeway.

A bit of news on Peter Gabriel’s next album has surfaced, but it is mostly the same details revealed by John Metcalfe in a blog posting last month. “Scratch My Back” will contain covers, or “reinterpretations” of other artists’ songs and those artists will in turn cover Gabriel’s songs. Gabriel’s covers are acoustic with orchestral and chamber music arrangements.

Coca-Cola is introducing 7.5-fluid ounce mini cans at the end of this year. They’re designed to put the calorie count, 90 calories for Coke, front and center on the label. The cans will be sold in eight packs. There will also be mini cans of Sprite, Fanta Orange, Cherry Coca-Cola and Barq’s. Presumably a Diet mini can would be besides the point.

The Philadelphia Phillies chartered an Amtrak train for their trip to New York to face the Yankees in the World Series. Usually they take a bus up, though they do ride the rails to D.C. for Nationals games.

U2’s 360° Tour set was designed so big as to be invisible. It’s not invisible (people have been calling it “the claw”), but it is constructed cleverly to allow for more seating and new attendance records. The L.A. Times has several interactive graphics that demonstrate the stage’s conception and construction. Three skeletons of the set were created to allow U2 to play in one city while set up begins in the next. 95,000 people were expected at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA last night (the show was streamed on YouTube).

In a rare interview with the Seattle Times, Stephen Sondheim warms up for his Monday conversation with Frank Rich to be held at Benaroya Hall. Sondheim doesn’t mind, in fact he likes, the more recent scaled-down versions of his musicals, including John Doyle’s take on ‘Sweeney Todd’ which had Patti Lupone doubling on tuba. He reveals that ‘Sweeney’ was intended to be more intimate until Hal Prince insisted on it being a big production. And what about the Tim Burton movie? Sondheim likes it “because Tim made it a film, not a recording of a stage musical.”

Women in Puebla, Mexico can hail one of 35 new pink taxis driven by women to avoid any discomfort or outright harassment from male taxi drivers. “Women’s rights activists are aghast at the cars’ sugary presentation and said the service does not address the root of the harassment problem.” Well in this case the root of the problem is not as easy to solve as providing women safe transportation options. Mexico City has women-only buses and subway cars.

The Washington State DOT has an educational page on de-icers. They make their own de-icer using salt water provided by Darigold for free. Darigold saves treatment and disposal costs for a cheese by-product and our state saves money. The other ingredients are de-sugared molasses, which help the de-icer bind to the road and last longer, and calcium chloride, which keeps it effective down to 10 degrees F. The page also describes other snow and ice removal techniques.