Two-ton block of cheese

I'm making my way through Season 1 of The West Wing, which I do every so often. To me, it is unadulterated joy to experience this TV series over and over again. The episodes can range from thundering well-articulated debate to light-hearted banter, and through it all, I feel an emotional connection to these characters. 

Following the pilot, the series delved into heady issues about the appropriate military response to an attack on US citizens and an uncertain President who had never served on the line of duty, who became vengeful when he discovered his personal physician had been killed. The three-episode arc was a prime example of drama at its best. 

As a sort of palette cleanser, the fifth episode entitled "The Crackpots and These Women" really took a break from the heavy dramatics and changed the pacing and tone of the series, demonstrating the diverse range Aaron Sorkin has available to him. 

Plot

The staff participates in "Big Block of Cheese Day," a fictional workday on which White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry encourages his staff to meet with fringe special interest groups that normally would not get attention from the White House. Big Block of Cheese Day also is mentioned in "Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail."

The rationale for the day, as recounted by McGarry, is that America's seventh president, Andrew Jackson, had a two-ton block of cheese in the White House foyer from which everyone was welcome to eat. This symbolized the openness of the White House to the American people. White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler derisively refers to the day as "Throw Open Our Office Doors To People Who Want To Discuss Things That We Could [sic] Care Less About Day", and Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman refers to it as "Total Crackpot Day".

White House Press Secretary C.J. Cregg meets with a group about building a highway for wolves, while Sam Seaborn meets with a citizen, played by Sam Lloyd, concerned about UFOs.

Josh is given a card from the NSC with information about where he is to go in the event of a nuclear attack and becomes riddled with guilt after realizing that nobody else on the staff was given one. He visits his therapist and reveals that his older sister died in a house fire while babysitting for him, and that he survived by running out of the house.

Later, at a reception in the Residence, the President and the men on his staff marvel at the extraordinary strength and integrity of the women in their lives. During the party, Josh returns his NSC card to the President, explaining that he just wants to be with his friends through everything and to be able to look them in the eye in the meantime.

By the way, the Big Block of Cheese Day occurs once more in the series in Season 2 as well during Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail. Once again, C.J. is asked to meet with a group who wouldn't otherwise be able to take a meeting with someone in the White House. She meets with "The Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality," which would like legislation to support a specific map projection, namely the "Peters projection" which corrects the exaggerated representation of North America and Western Europe found in the standard Mercator projection. Believing that placing the Northern Hemisphere on top suggests dominance by the countries there, the cartographers actually advocate rotating the projection by 180 degrees to place the Southern Hemisphere on top.

Incidentally, in this episode Toby Ziegler meets with a group of protestors and the exterior shots happened to be of my office building. How cool is that?

Punchlines

So what's the point of close-circuit cameras when the footage quality always blows chunks?

Especially when the night vision lenses are on the blink! Everybody starts looking like pixelated aliens vaguely resembling Shotgun.