Early America was a strange place a free
land in which no one blushed at the
thought of sending a president a block
of cheese. Not a snack size Baby Bell
but hundreds of pounds of solid cheese!
Seriously this happened more than once!
On today's episode let's pay fromage to
the unBRIElievable stories of
presidential cheese. It's actually really good.
In 1801 a group of Massachusetts women
gave Thomas Jefferson a 1200-pound block
of cheese, as kind of a thanks for being
rad gift. Andrew Jackson also had the
privilege of receiving not just one, but
at least two--maybe three--blocks of
cheese. The largest weighed in at 1,400
pounds gifted to him by Colonel Meacham of
Sandy Creek, New York, in 1835 served two
years later shortly before Jackson left
office. But why wait?
The answer is because how in the world are
you going to eat all that cheese Andy?
Give me a break.
Literally... It broke.
The fruit of Meechum's labor was four feet in diameter two
feet thick and was delivered to Jackson
via a real legit parade through New York
and then by schooner ship, setting sail
on the high CHEESE.  Jackson gave giant
chunks of cheese to his buddies and ate
his fair share, but he was still left
with an absurd amount. It was
overwhelming and he was helpless. By 1837
Jackson's second term was winding down
and he wasn't about to haul a two-year
old mountain of cheese with him out of the
White House. So he decided to make the
famed fromage a feature player at his
last public reception in the
presidential palace: free food! Smart move
Andy, the reception's 10,000 guests
devoured the wheel and it was gone
in two hours. What wasn't gone though was
the stench, and Jackson successor Van
Buren had to deal with that lingering
odor firsthand. Even Washingtonians who
allegedly smelled the cheese, which one
person dubbed an evil and people smelling
horror for blocks. Blocks! Get it? That
wasn't even in the script.
Former POTUS Barack Obama's administration revised
the tradition and brought hashtags big
block of cheese day into the modern era.
Leaving the cheddar crisis to Jackson
the administration celebrated virtually,
sans cheese like this can. Inviting
members of the public to share questions
with the administration on social media.
Ripley's tried to reach out to the Trump
administration for comment on the future
of big cheese day to no avail,
but I'll remain optimistic knowing that
orange is the Donalds favorite color.
Thanks for tuning in I'm Sabrina sneak
clearly not lactose intolerant and
really not wanting to eat this. This is
cool stuff and strange things.
Thank God.
See you next week.
