BIG BLOCK OF CHEESE DAY

'Big Block of Cheese Day' is a fictional workday on the television program ''The West Wing''. On Big Block of Cheese Day, the White House Chief of Staff, Leo McGarry, encourages his staff to take meetings with fringe special interest groups that normally would not get attention from the White House. Big Block of Cheese Day is "celebrated" in episodes 105 and 216.
White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler refers to it as "Throw Open Our Office Doors To People Who Want To Discuss Things That We Could Care Less About" Day, and Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman refers to it as "Total Crackpot Day".
Big Block of Cheese Day is supposed to be a regular event (taking place on the first of every month), but for practical reasons, occurs at Leo's discretion (Toby Ziegler noted once that it had happened only twice within a twelve months period), possibly as a way to keep West Wing staffers alert. Leo has a standard speech that goes, "President Andrew Jackson, in the main foyer of his White House, had a big block of cheese. The block of cheese was huge — over two tons. And it was there for any and all who might be hungry. Jackson wanted the White House to belong to the people, so from time to time, he opened his doors to those who wished an audience. It is in the spirit of Andrew Jackson that I, from time to time, ask senior staff to have face-to-face meetings with those people representing organizations who have a difficult time getting our attention. I know the more jaded among you, see this as something rather beneath you. But I assure you that listening to the voices of passionate Americans is beneath no one, and surely not the people's servants." In episode 216, Leo is interrupted several times by staffers walking into the meeting late, and once by Josh adding, "And a Wheat Thin the size of Lake Tahoe."

Contents

Real-life inspiration

Issues

References

See also

External links

Real-life inspiration

Although there has never been a real-life Big Block of Cheese Day, the inspiration for the day in the ''West Wing'' universe (as recounted by the character Leo McGarry) is that America's seventh president, Andrew Jackson, had a two-ton block of cheese in the White House foyer from which everyone was welcome to eat.
The book ''Real Life at the White House'' (ISBN 0-415-92320-4), by John Whitcomb and Claire Whitcomb, confirms that this story does draw on actual events. Andrew Jackson did once receive a 1,400 pound, four foot in diameter, two foot thick (635 kg, 1.2 m diameter, 60 cm thick) block of cheese as a gift. After two years of aging, he held a public "cheese tasting". The event was heavily attended and the cheese was consumed in two hours.

Issues

In episode 105, "The Crackpots and These Women," C.J. Cregg meets with a group that would like to build a highway for wolves and Sam Seaborn meets with a staffer of US Space Command concerned about UFOs.
In episode 216, "Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail," Toby Ziegler meets with the fictional group "World Policies Studies," which objects to the World Trade Organization, and C.J. Cregg meets with "The Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality", which would like legislature to support a specific map projection. The fictional cartographic organization prefers the equal-area Peters World Map or Gall-Peters projection to the more common Mercator projection.

References

#Bartlet4America.org — Leo McGarry profile

See also

★ List of The West Wing episodes

★ Cheshire Mammoth Cheese

External links

★ History textbook illustration of Andrew Jackson's block of cheese

★ The West Wing Unofficial Continuity Guide — Was there really a Big Block of Cheese in the Jackson White House?

★ Big Block of Cheese Dot Com — Website inspired by West Wing's Big Block of Cheese Day