A BIG BLOCK OF CHEESY

In 1835 an admiring Upstate New York dairy farmer gave a gigantic wheel of cheddar cheese to President Andrew Jackson. The wheel was four feet in diameter, two feet thick and weighed 1,400 pounds. After two years of giving huge chunks of it to friends and hardly making a dent in the wheel, Jackson had a great disposal idea. In 1837, he held a public reception for 10,000 people who finished the block off in about two hours.

Saluting Jackson’s ingenuity in dealing with a large problem, the West Wing TV Show had two Big Block of Cheese Day episodes. The first one aired in 1999 the Show’s premier season. Dubbed “Total Crackpot Day” by one of the characters, the episode saw White House staffers meet with members of the public to review exceptionally eccentric ideas. The second episode, broadcast in the following season, was in a similar vein.

Both were very entertaining, comedic twists on Jackson’s public free for all.

Fast forward to 2014. The Obama White House will hold a virtual Big Block of Cheese Day today. Staffers will interact with the public during the day via several social media outlets like Twitter.

But why? Here are a few possibilities:

A give away of big smelly ideas that the White House wants to dump but can’t figure out another way to do it.

A not so subtle way for the White House to tell voters that they are crackpots.

Another fantastic opportunity to make more Obamacare sales pitches to the younger crowd.

A way to associate the President, whose poll numbers are waning, with his popular West Wing counterpart.

Whatever it is it just doesn’t seem like a gouda idea. But, it does earn the White House the latest Lame Spin Award.