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.

Andrew Jackson

The origin of Big Block of Cheese Day, as told by Leo McGarry, is that America's seventh president, Andrew Jackson, had a two-ton block of cheese in the White House foyer that everyone was welcome to eat from.

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According to fansite Bartlet4America.org{{ref|b4a}}, the book Real Life at the White House (ISBN 0415923204), by John Whitcomb and Claire Whitcomb, confirms that Andrew Jackson did once receive a 1,400 pound, four foot in diameter, two foot thick block of cheese as a gift. After two years of aging, he held a "cheese tasting" that the public was invited to. The event was heavily attended and the cheese was consumed in two hours.

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