The Big Block of Cheese

How to be a badass when responding to small talk

Josh:  How's it going?
Bruno:  I don't care.

Day Time Television

BARTLET:  I don't understand. Don't any of these characters have jobs?
CHARLIE:  I don't know, Mr. President. I think one of them is a surgeon.
BARTLET:  They seem to have a lot of free time in the middle of the day. And that woman's changed her clothes for quite a lot in one afternoon.

Only so much RAM

C.J.:  What are [your thoughts]?
BRUNO:  On Title IX?
C.J.:  Yeah.
BRUNO:  I have none. I'm indifferent.
C.J.:  You can't be indifferent.
BRUNO:  I have to be. I have only so much RAM in my head. I have to prioritize. I have to throw some things overboard, so, I've chosen, for instance, not to care whether or not Purdue has a fencing team.

Okay, every once in a while I feel really guilty about taking a pretty awesome West Wing domain name from people who might actually use it to talk about the West Wing, and instead I just use it as my personal blog. My tumblr/lj/youtube/twitter name, LymanLover, isn’t super obvious but if you know Josh you know what I mean.

Anyhow, I’ll always love talking about the West Wing, so thank you for the question anon!

I’m not sure about a Big Block of Cheese month, but on the show the chief of staff, Leo McGarry, advocated Big Block of Cheese days.  While they were supposed to happen once a month, we only had two episodes featuring these days and the characters themselves admit that they can often go long stretches without doing these days.

Anyway, Big Block of Cheese days were Leo’s tribute to Andrew Jackson.  He would always start the days off with a staff meeting and this speech (and I love getting to make this speech).  Andrew Jackson had in his white house a two ton block of cheese, there for any and all who wished an audience.

In this spirit, Leo would use these days to assign meetings to senior staff with people and organizations that would not usually get the ear of the white house.  Notable examples include World Bank protestors and my personal favorites which were assigned to CJ, the Press Secretary - wildlife advocates who wanted a wolves only highway, and my personal favorite, Cartographers for Social Equality.

(Fun Fact: the incredible Nick Offerman aka Ron Swanson of Parks & Rec is one of the wolf advocates.  Talk about a 180 from Ron.  Definitely worth a watch.)

I loved both the episodes because they’re notably pretty funny even though they have their dark tones throughout.  While the idea isn’t feasible in government today, the spirit that they’re done in is noble.

Like Clockwork

As soon as I got out of DC, I had the desperate desire to watch the West Wing.  Now that I’m home, I can cool it on my seventeenth run through of Arrested Development.

And of course, I’m always ready for some Community.  Especially now that there’s only one episode left before months and months of waiting.

I just called Jay Carney, the current White House Press Secretary, Jim Carney, the Republican congressman who advocated moderate social security reform and was defeated for reelection thanks to a DNC ad about it written by Josh Lyman, the fictional White House deputy CoS from the West Wing.

Womp woooomp.

All That’s Left

As I sat, looking out the window, after having the wings de-iced but before take off, I realized that this was it.  After 14 years, the show’s been cancelled, the series finale is coming up.

The beginning of the end had come and gone a long time ago.  Weeks if you count it at the purchase of the WFB house, months if you count the Seeward’s first phone call, years if you count the residence of 112 W Vintage Drive decreasing permanently as we made conscious decisions for “greater” places like Washington DC or inexplicable choices for anywhere else but there.  

But as we were lifting off the ground I allowed the idea to wash over me.  

The next time I leave this house, I’ll be leaving it forever.

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