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SAY CHEESE

A new postage stamp being sold in Japan gives letters a more personal touch: It features a snapshot of the sender. The person's photo is taken with a digital camera, then printed on stamp sheets, a process that takes five minutes. Postal officials hope the vanity stamps, sold for $8.80 per sheet of 10 at a Tokyo stamp show last week, will renew interest in letter-writing during the cyber-age. The stamps also feature scenes from traditional Japanese prints.

MY, YOU LOOK LOVELY IN BUTTER

Instead of carving ice sculptures, artists for the Ohio State Fair went to work in another medium that slowly melted in the summer heat: butter. Sculptors spent 190 hours crafting five pieces for a butter exhibit, including a 900-pound soccer ball, a child playing soccer, and a cow and calf - both annual fixtures at the show since 1920. Neil Armstrong and Jack Nicklaus have also been temporarily immortalized in butter.

New York and Maryland residents reported having the longest commutes in the US, averaging about 30 minutes door-to-door, according to the Census Bureau's 2000 Supplemental Survey of 700,000 US households. It reported the national average is 24.2 minutes. Meanwhile, the poll found most commuters still take their cars to work, and only 5.2 percent use public transportation. States where workers have the longest and shortest average commutes, according to the Census Bureau, in minutes:

Longest:

New York 31.2

Maryland 29.2

New Jersey 28.7

Washington D.C. 28.5

Illinois 27.0

Shortest:

North Dakota 15.4

South Dakota 15.6

Montana 16.0

Nebraska 16.1

Wyoming 17.1

- Associated Press