As the year winds down and the best-of lists start flying, I'd be remiss not to single out some of the best, blog-est and most interesting cheese stuff we've encountered on the blog in 2012:

My inner anarchist delighted in cheese-smuggling Canadian cops who confirmed that the siren song of cheese crime corrupts even (or especially) the law.

Hungry up-and-comers Y.N. Rich Kids dropped a seriously dope track that's on its way to becoming this summer's #1 jam. Big ups to Hot Cheetos, and some tight lyrics from the Y.N. crew:

yo, i'm hungry where them cheetos at?
they stay bitin' like where them mosquitoes at?
i'm on point like a elbow, hands red like elmo

my mama said "have u had enough?"
i looked and i said "no ma'am"
i go ham, in the grocery store orange fanta and takis
ridin' with my allowance, so nobody can stop me
all the kids wanna be him, go crazy when they see him
my mom hit the ATM, cuz she know i need them

And big ups to the YMCA program that encourages the flow.

In celebration of what would have been Julia's 100th birthday, PBS released a celebratory remix, featuring her from her earliest days on television onwards.

Like their Mr. Rogers or Bob Ross remixes, this one is nostalgic, slightly haunting, and really appeals the to the idealism that Julia Child embodied: you can do it yourself, all it takes is enthusiasm, there's nothing to lose in trying.

Have you donated to your local PBS station recently?

If you're looking to sell some product, you might as well give up right now because Little Baby's Ice Cream has everyone beat with this commercial.

...And by that I mean they've created a disturbing ad that makes Little Baby's Ice Cream look even creepier than it sounds. Check it out.

The supercomputing sofa makers at Cray have teamed up with scientists from the University of Edinburgh to attack a slippery problem in modern physics: modeling the behavior of soft matter like ice cream.

...and the makers of Qmilk put out this, ah, fascinating promotion.

And for those fretting about why we would want to make a silky chemise, instead of silky cheese, never fear:

Our suppliers use only milk that doesn't meet dairy milk regulations and should not be used for food.... Every year about 1.9 million tonnes of non-marketable milk will be discarded by agricultural enterprises in Germany alone.

Sustainability is so hot.

Also...

I just saw this clip of a "new" outrage in the meat industry: inferior cuts bonded together to form decoy filet mignons and other more spendy items. The magic happens with transglutaminase, a naturally-occurring enzyme that goes by the charming moniker of "meat glue":

Tomorrow, May 1st, is your last day to apply for the 2012 Birth of a Cheese event, and we're throwing open the doors to all comers.

To apply to become a taster for Jasper Hill's latest locally-sourced, sustainable Alpine cheese, just go to our application and tell us in 200 words or less why you're the one we want.

Jasper Hill wants this project to help build a sustainable local food economy for Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, and we're proud to involve everyone in our community by opening the application process to everyone. So don't wait, apply now!

Okay, holy smokes. Apropos of lambs, here's something you don't see every day: a pair of baby lambs paling around with a whistling tupperware nest of little goslings.

The lambs are pets of Alex Komechak, whose website Camels and Friends has dozens of sweet videos of her menagerie. (You may have seen her racing her pet camel Nessie on the Today Show.)

This advertisement for lactose-free dairy products from Arla is built on a grain of truth. Apparently, like our web editor Eilis, hedgehogs are lactose intolerant. It's debatable whether they'd actually enjoy a "really cheesy cheese pizza," though. I'm thinking grubs. Bugs and grubs.