In late 2003 I noted here that an artisan cheesemaker had set up shop in Pike Place Market. Four years later, Beecher’s Handmade Cheese has flourished. Tourists stop in to watch the cheesemaking process and locals clamor for the insanely rich mac’n’cheese. Beecher’s Flagship Reserve, an aged cheddar, was first runner-up for Best in Show at the recent American Cheese Society competition. They’ve perfected their milk blend, using a mix of lower fat milk from Holsteins and higher fat Jersey cows. And now owner Kurt Dammeier is looking into buying his own farm so he can control his product from cow to cheese. Dammeier supports his local competitors as well, carrying Washington cheeses in the shop and envisioning a future where the state is known for artisan cheeses.

Fans of Aardman Animations‘s Wallace & Gromit will recall the humorous sheep herd from “A Close Shave,” in particular Shaun (whose name I always thought was “shorn”, but it is indeed a pun). Shaun has his very own children’s show, “Shaun the Sheep” which has been running in the UK since March. The Disney Channel now shows it in the U.S., typically fitting the 5+ minute episodes between 2 Sunday morning shows. A few full episodes can be found at the usual copyright violation locations; here’s one about soccer on Google video.

I would’ve guessed that the Boeing 747 was the world’s largest airplane, though I never had reason to confirm the superlative. Last Friday the actual holder of that title landed at Seattle’s Boeing Field on a job for Boeing and GE. With a wingspan over 290 ft, the Antonov An-225 has an empty weight of 385,800 lbs. The giant plane was built to carry the Soviet Buran spacecraft, their version of the Space Shuttle (NASA has modified 747s for the same purpose). The one An-225 that was completed now serves as a commercial cargo plane, thus its Friday appearance to pick up four GE-90 engines for the Boeing 777. With six engines and 32 wheels it made for an impressive photo opportunity for the Seattle PI.

At The Vac Shop in Seattle, manager Will Flannery turns discarded vacuum cleaners into robots, fish, clams, pigs, the Space Needle, UFOs. The finished sculptures sit outside the shop, making a convenient landmark for neighbors.

What time is it? The phone company won’t tell you anymore. AT&T; is discontinuing its time service as the equipment and usage runs down. The service has already been halted in every state except California and Nevada. Known as “POPCORN” in the areas where dialing that word would get you a recorded voice of the time, the service shuts off on September 19 in California, and when the Nevada equipment is decommissioned, it’ll be entirely gone. Joanne Daniels, who provided the voice for all those hours, minutes, and seconds for Californians, is enjoying a final 15 minutes of fame as reporters get her take on the disappearing service. The equipment, aptly called the “time machine,” consists of “large drums about 2 feet in diameter, with as many as 100 album-like audio tracks on the exterior. Whenever someone called time, the drums would start turning and a message would begin, with different tracks mixed together on the fly.” (thanks Seth)

Clean-cut, tip-refusing delivery guys, nectarines as big as softballs, and free “complimentary samples” of a dozen eggs and a bag of salad won over a reporter who reviewed Amazon’s new grocery delivery service, Amazon Fresh. Somewhere in my office I have a souvenir WebVan hockey puck given out at a San Jose Sharks game.

Wonder Bread hasn’t been available in Washington state for two years? I never noticed. And it seems that many in Southern California may not either, as Interstate Bakeries Corp. is now closing down Wonder Bread production in that area. The company has been operating in Chapter 11 bankruptcy for 3 years now. The bakery closures will not affect its money-making snack lines of Hostess Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos.

For real this time? A new film version of Logan’s Run has been going through the on-again, off-again movie studio romance for a few years now. The latest director tied to the project, Joseph Kosinski, has never made a feature film, but slashfilm gathered up some of his commercial work. From the looks of it, Logan’s Run promises to be visually stunning, at the very least.

Officials in Broward County, Florida are considering adding recycled glass to eroding beaches. Sand is, after all, the main ingredient in glass. Tests have shown that organisms can live in the crushed glass just as they do in sand. But some remain concerned that there could be “unforeseen consequences.” Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, California, a former dump that now has beautiful, naturally tumbled seaglass, was the inspiration for the recycled glass as sand idea.

A new design for the $5 bill will be revealed on September 20th. Counterfeiters have been bleaching $5 bills and turning them into $100 bills, retaining several security features such as the ink test that is commonly used at retail cash registers. A new $100 bill is also in the works, with a high-tech security thread that “combines micro-printing with tiny lenses — 650,000 for a single $100 bill.” Crane & Co, supplier of paper for U.S. currency since 1879, has a $46 million contract to produce the new security thread. Sweden’s 1,000 kroner utilizes the same thread. In 2002, Crane purchased the currency paper mill and printer AB Tumba Bruk, which was associated with the Swedish mint. Now known as Crane AB, the firm was founded in 1755, giving it a longer history in currency manufacturing than its parent company. Crane AB’s website has an animation showing this security thread on the kroner. The technology is called Motion. Here is a Riksbank page illustrating it along with other Swedish currency features. The redesigned $5 will be in circulation early next year, the $100 towards the end of 2008.