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A sculpture of the signing of the Declaration of Independence made from a one-tonne block of cheddar cheese glistened on the sidewalk of Times Square in New York on Thursday as an artist's tribute to the Fourth of July.
"It's very patriotic, using the signing of the Declaration of Independence, bringing Americans together for the Fourth," said Troy Landwehr, who carved the sculpture for cracker company Cheez-It to celebrate U.S. Independence Day.
"The cheddar has been pasteurized and will not melt," Landwehr said. "What I spray on it is cooking oil and that stops it from drying out and cracking," he said. "That's why it looks sweaty. It actually preserves the cheese."
The replica of an iconic painting by John Trumbull shows John Adams, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin and others standing around a table signing the historic document.
The work is not the first time Landwehr has recreated U.S. history with cheese. Last year he carved a cheese version of Mount Rushmore, which depicts U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Abe Lincoln.
This year he took on another version of America's first "big cheeses" -- Trumbull's oil painting, which hangs in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol and shows 42 of the 56 signatories of the 1776 Declaration of Independence from Britain.
"I scanned the painting into the computer, drew a 3D mapping of it and basically did lines and grids," said Landwehr, who has been carving cheese since he was 12 and owns a winery in Wisconsin.
He said putting the cheese on display in New York and Philadelphia would help it age faster and then it would be taken back to Wisconsin to be donated to food pantries.
Financial woes at Starbucks Corp., which is planning to close 600 underperforming U.S. stores, is evoking glee and little sympathy from aficionados who say they resent the coffee shop giant and favor small independent cafes.
"I'm so happy. I'm so not a Starbucks person," said Melinda Vigliotti, sipping iced coffee at the Irving Farm Coffee House in New York. "I believe in supporting small businesses. Starbucks, bye-bye."