"Big Block of Cheese Day" - The White House is Open for Questions

The White House Blog ^ | Jan. 29, 2014 | Erin Lindsay

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

President Obama has always been dedicated to the idea that the White House is truly "The People's House" and has worked to make 1600 Pennsylvania and his administration open and accessible.

This isn't a new idea, the same can be said of President Andrew Jackson. On February 22, 1837, President Jackson hosted an open house featuring a 1,400-pound block of cheese that sat in the main foyer of the White House. This original "Big Block of Cheese Day" opened the doors of the White House to thousands of citizens to interact with cabinet members and White House staff – and carve off a slice of the four foot by two foot thick slab of cheddar.

On Wednesday, January 29th, with a nod to history (and maybe the TV show the West Wing), the Obama Administration is hosting the first-ever virtual "Big Block of Cheese Day," during which dozens of White House officials will take to social media for a day long 'open house' to answers questions from everyday Americans in real-time on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram and via Google+ Hangout.

So be sure to visit WH.gov/SOTU to watch the State of the Union Address live on January 28, 2014 at 9 p.m. ET and stay tuned for a complete schedule of engagement events for virtual "Big Block of Cheese Day." You can start asking questions now using the hashtag #AsktheWH.

Virtual Big Block of Cheese Day: Schedule of events

Join us on Twitter

From the road with President Obama:

•Senior Advisor Dan Pfeiffer - @Pfeiffer44 •White House Press Secretary Jay Carney - @PressSec •Assistant Press Secretary Matt Lehrich - @Lehrich44 •Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett - @VJ44 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. ET: General Overview & #SOTU themes

•Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest - @JEarnest44 •Director of the Office of Public Engagement Paulette Aniskoff - @PAniskoff44v 10:00 – 10:30 a.m. ET: Economic Opportunity & Mobility

•Deputy Communications Director Amy Brundage - @Brundage44 •Member of the Council of Economic Advisers Betsey Stevenson - @CEABetsey 11:00 – 11:30 a.m. ET: Immigration & Latino Issues

•Director of Hispanic Media Katherine Vargas - @Vargas44 •Deputy Director of Hispanic Media Antoinette Rangel - @LaCasaBlanca 12:00 – 12:30 p.m. ET: Climate & Energy

•Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Gina McCarthy - @GinaEPA •Special Assistant to the President for Energy & Climate Change - @Utech44 1:00 – 1:30 p.m. ET: STEM

•Director of the Office of Science & Technology Policy Dr. John Holdren - @WhiteHouseOSTP 2:00 – 2:30 p.m. ET: Minimum Wage, Unemployment Insurance, Skills gap & Apprenticeships

•Secretary of Labor Tom Perez - @LaborSec •Member of the Council of Economic Advisers Betsey Stevenson - @CEABetsey 2:30 – 3:00 p.m. ET: State & Local issues

•Director of Intergovernmental Affairs David Agnew - @DavidAgnew44 3:00 – 3:30 p.m. ET: Foreign Policy

•Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes - @Rhodes44 •National Security Council Spokesperson Caitlin Hayden - @NSCPress 4:00 – 4:30 p.m. ET: Health Care

•Senior Communications Advisor Tara McGuinness - @HealthCareTara •Director of Progressive Media & Online Response Jesse Lee - @JesseCLee •Associate Communications Director Rachel Racusen - @Racusen44 4:30 – 5:00 p.m. ET: Rebuilding America's Infrastructure

•Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx - @SecretaryFoxx Facebook Q&A:

11:00 a.m. ET: The White House Facebook Page -- Economic Opportunity & Mobility

•Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Jason Furman 3:30 p.m. ET: La Casa Blanca Facebook Page -- Immigration & Latino issues

•Director of the Domestic Policy Council Cecilia Munoz Google+ Hangout:

1:30 p.m. ET: Education: "From Daycare to Diploma" with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

Joined by three of the extraordinary Americans who are joining the First Lady in her viewing box for this year’s State of the Union Address

•Joey Hudy, Maker and Intel Intern •Estiven Rodriguez, Student, Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School •Kathy Hollowell-Makle, 2013 DCPS Teacher of the Year •Additional participants to represent Elementary/Middle School, High School and College. Have a question about a topic not covered here? Additional Administration officials will be participating throughout the day so keep an eye out:

First Lady Michelle Obama - @FLOTUS Executive Director of Let's Move Sam Kass - @LetsMove Director of Specialty Media Shine Inouye - @Inouye44 Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley - @WhiteHouseCEQ The White House Historical Association - @WhitehouseHstry Communications Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy Rafael Lemaitre - @RafaelONDCP Department of Agriculture - @USDA Department of Commerce - @CommerceSec Director of the Office of Personnel Management Katherine Archuleta - @OPMDirector Office of Personnel Management - @USOPM Office of the United States Trade Representative - @USTradeRep Department of the Treasury - @USTreasury

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

Oh, my! Isn't it peachy of our beloved leader to make himself and his staff so open and accessible - on this one day? So let's take advantage of it! Freepers, I suggest we show up in force. I further suggest that we all keep our questions carefully modulated and in a civil tone -- but pointed. (I'm sure that any "rude" questions will quickly be given the heave-ho, so there's not much point to that anyway.) With any luck, our example will embolden the sheeple, and it will be a Big Block of Cheese Day to remember.

Let the wild ruckus begin!

[montag813]

Wow, the memes will have a field day with this one. “Big Block of Bullsh*t Day?” Etc, etc...

[txrefugee]

And the visitors trashed the White House in Jackson’s day. Democrats never have a good idea.

[locountry1dr]

IIRC, a huge block of cheddar was sent to Jefferson from New England. It was served yearly at the White House for a number of years until the mouse tunnels and associated waste left therein rendered it unusable and no one would eat it.
This event may be that same cheese.

[bert]

What a bunch of horse crap.

Having nothing of substance to do, they are announcing they are going to pretend to do something.

Like weight Watchers, they are hoping an ap will gin up the lost gullible females

[Tennessee Nana]

Additional Administration officials will be participating throughout the day so keep an eye out:

First Lady Michelle Obama - @FLOTUS
________________________________________________

Yeah shes an official...

[carton253]

In the first and second seasons, the West Wing had episodes based on the big block of cheese day. Pretty funny stuff.

[newnhdad]

So the president was sitting there with a block of cheese the size of a car battery...

[Mamzelle]

Interesting. Cheddar would continue to age, if stored in a cool place, for years.

[SERKIT]

Big block of cheese? Like George Castanza?

[Vermont Lt]

Leave it up to Obama to take a decent idea and make it so complicated that only staffers will figure it out.

How about they throw open the doors and let citizens come in for some cheese.

[Vermont Lt]

Will they have someone on hand that speaks Wookie?

[Tennessee Nana]

Im such they’ll pay big bucks to hire someone who pretends too interpret...

[Iron Munro]

President Obama has always been dedicated to the idea that the White House is truly "The People's House" and has worked to make 1600 Pennsylvania and his administration open and accessible.

This must be a report from that parallel universe where everything is reversed.

In that world they also have a president named Barack Obama but that one does good instead of bad.

[Fiji Hill]

Welfare Cheese--Emmanuel Laskey (1963)

[tbpiper]

President Obama has always been dedicated to the idea that the White House is truly "The People's House" and has worked to make 1600 Pennsylvania and his administration open and accessible.

Nothing like starting everything off with a realy big lie.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I guess I’m amused because I’m old enough to remember the big “Government Cheese” debacle of the 1970’s.

[hummingbird]

A Big Block of ______________ and it isn’t cheese.