Happy Big Block of Cheese Day

Here at the White House, we’re dedicated to making President Obama’s administration the most open and accessible in history. That’s why, for the second year in a row, we thought it’d be a gouda idea to brie-unite a certain cast of characters to help us bring back a tradition that dates back to the days of President Andrew Jackson.

After pretty much mic-dropping all over the Republicans during last night’s SOTU, President Obama begins today much the same way as us normals: by making a bunch of cheesy jokes. Today is Big Block of Cheese Day, a open forum for the president and other government members to chat with their constituents. Legend has it that this is inspired by that one time President Jackson ordered a 1,400 pound block of cheddar cheese and invited local people over to the White House in a noble act of transparency, but The Atlantic has the scoop that Jackson just got the cheese as a gift and didn’t know what to do it — — not to mention it stank to high heaven — — so he just invited the people over to eat it, which the same thing I do when I have a half a keg left over from a party.

Because America is such a plentiful, cheese-friendly country, it turns out that this was not the first Big Block of Cheese — — that title goes to “Mammoth Cheese,” which appeared in 1801 and weighed 1,234 pounds, using the milk from every single cow in Cheshire, Massachusetts. (This cheese is also the reason why we use “mammoth” as an adjective. THE MORE YOU KNOW.) It took the creators three weeks to transport it to Thomas Jefferson at the White House, where they were greeted with this sign: “THE GREATEST CHEESE IN AMERICA — FOR THE GREATEST MAN IN AMERICA.” GOD, now I’m really hungry!!! BRIE RIGHT BACK. 😉