Pop culture columnist Peter Hartlaub opines on movie taglines, starting with the best (or is it worst?) of Tom Cruise and ending with his top picks including classics like “In space, no one can hear you scream” and “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…” And the fun continues in the article’s reader comments section.

Alas, Stacey’s Bookstore is shutting its flagship (and last remaining) San Francisco store in March. Stacey’s has been in business for 85 years.

It’s been over a year since Keith Luce took over as Executive Chef at The Herbfarm. Seattle P.I. food writer Rebekah Denn spent several days in the kitchen observing the staff as they prepared “The Holly & The Ivy” themed dinner. It’s a spectacular holiday high note in a long string of themes throughout the year, all designed to dazzle diners who spend $189 and up to enjoy 9 courses. Denn’s visit resulted in five blog postings that reveal the inner workings of a kitchen that has the luxury of serving a set menu, but the stress of meeting sky high expectations. She saw the menu evolve as produce from the farm arrived and an oyster delivery didn’t materialize, watched the chefs learn new techniques from Luce, and took photos of their crib sheets. Recent additions to The Herbfarm’s local ingredients include housemade cheese and butter, bread from a wood-fired oven, eggs from their own chickens, and, soon to come, the inevitable but tasty end to their acorn and hazelnut fed Mangalitsas pigs. (Part I; Part II; Part III; Part IV; Part V)

Webcams are proving the success of special deer underpasses installed by the Wyoming Department of Transportation along U.S. Highway 30. Approximately 14,000 mule deer cross the highway each year in their migration from winter to summer ranges. The number of deer-vehicle collisions had gone down after the underpasses were created, but visual proof came from new webcams which captured on “film” 800 deer, a few antelope and a bull elk using the underpasses in a one-week period.

The shipping industry, like most motor-driven transportation, is far from green. Ships “burn a thick, dirty sludge called bunker fuel while at sea and slurp diesel to keep the lights and air conditioning running while in port.” Seattle’s Foss Maritime is launching “the Prius of tugboats” this month, calling it the world’s first hybrid tug as it uses batteries in addition to a diesel engine. Tugs run at full power only 7% of the time, and Foss’ engineers looked to similar situations for inspiration, including switching locomotives and underwater drilling rigs. Their new system also uses a smaller diesel engine than usual. Foss was founded in 1889 with one used rowboat, repainted and sold by Thea Foss. She became the inspiration for Tugboat Annie.

It’s still possible to talk to a butcher at certain grocery stores, and Whole Foods has comprehensive training for their meat department staff. Their butchers need to complete 1,920-hours of training, over about two years. Apprentices do clean-up and counter work before they get to cut poultry first, then pork, and lastly beef. Of course there are still local butchers shops to be found if you live in the right area, and there you’ll probably find the true dying breed of old-style butchers (in Bellevue, WA there’s Golden Steer Choice Meats).

In a patch of woods in Stanwood, Washington, mass-produced pianos from China are being upgraded into premium instruments with still reasonable price tags. Darrell Fandrich, a former piano technician for musicians, has built a business for the niche of amateur pianists and students who want a quality instrument but don’t want to pay $60,000. He and his sons replace the hammers, felt, and bass strings, reweight the keys, and voice the hammers. It’s a labor of love for Fanrich & Sons who’ve found a way to provide something lovely for less with what is already available in the market.

“Outside, it is 2008. In here, it is 1924.” So says Michael Harris of Paul’s Hat Works in San Francisco, one of a dying breed of hat makers. Sure you can still buy a decent hat at certain stores, and I’ll bet you can get a custom made hat in Texas and the southern states. Harris will measure your head with something called a “skull conformiture” (I found this photo of one in use) and go through 24 steps to provide you with a hat made just for your head. Harris used to visit Ecuador for genuine woven Panama hats that he’d custom shape for his customers. He’s not sure if he’ll sell or just close up shop soon, but he knows it’s not an ideal time to be a custom hatmaker.

The Seattle P.I. is running a series of articles on imported honey, the result of a 5 month investigation. Today they’ve got a bit on China’s use of the deadly antibiotic chloramphenicol and a main article on how honey from China is being smuggled into the U.S. through countries that don’t have enough bees to produce the amount of honey they’re exporting. There’s a heavy tariff on honey imported from China, plus the added scrutiny of antibiotic and pesticide use, leading honey “smugglers” to use a middleman country. Some of the honey has been found to contain chloramphenicol and some of it may have been adulterated with corn syrup or sugar water to stretch its value. It’s a good thing that parents are warned to not give honey to infants (on account of botulism). Consider buying local honey, or at least believe you can trust where the honey came from. On Wednesday the P.I. will cover “organic” honey.

This one’s for hard core David Bowie fans only: I stumbled upon a mention of a video produced for the single “The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell” from the ‘Hours…’ album. It featured a full-size Ziggy Stardust puppet, the website being that of puppeteer Rick Lyon (Avenue Q, Sesame Street, etc). The video, by Oil Factory‘s Dom and Nic, was apparently never released, though the mvdbase.com listing claims it was. In the Teenage Wildlife forums there’s a snippet of a chat transcript where Bowie says the puppets ended up looking like puppets and not achieving the dark look Dom and Nic were going for. Another posting has what appears to be stills from the same video shoot with an “Ashes to Ashes” Bowie puppet. I can imagine the video, if it isn’t out there already (yeah, I searched online of course), will show up on a compilation sometime, but the more interesting question is: where are those Bowie puppets now? And how many were there?