The White House Is Hosting the Virtual Big Block of Cheese Day Today

In a slightly complex schedule of events, various members of the White House staff will be available at different points Wednesday on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram and Google+ Hangout so that “everyday Americans” can ask them questions.

Fans of The West Wing will remember the Big Block of Cheese Day as it was featured in a particularly funny episode during season two. During the episode, The Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality manages to convince White House Press Secretary C.J. Cregg that the map of the world most American schools use “has fostered European imperialist attitudes for centuries and created an ethnic bias against the third world.”

That episode was based off a real thing President Andrew Jackson did in 1837: he invited thousands of plebs to come to the White House, eat cheese carved off a very large block of the stuff (1,400 pounds of cheddar), and talk about whatever they wanted to talk about.

In a video promoting today’s events, previously bearded White House Press Secretary Jay Carney cutely gabs with friends of the administration and former West Wing stars Bradley Whitford and Joshua Malina about how cool Big Block of Cheese Day is. This is a great bid for transparency and all that, but it would be much cooler if there was actual cheese involved.