The rationale for the day, as recounted by McGarry (much to the consternation of the senior staff), 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.
Josh is given a card from the National Security Council 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.
Later, President Bartlet hosts a reception in the Residence for his youngest daughter, Zoey, who is scouting colleges in the D.C. area.
[2] The cheese was retained for several years, with pieces being pulled off and discarded as it rotted; but some was capable of consumption and was served at presidential dinners until the remains were disposed of, most likely by being dumped into the Potomac River.
[3] In one of his earliest roles, Nick Offerman played an animal rights activist in this episode that proposed the construction of an "1800 mile wolves-only roadway".
[6] In the pre-credit sequence, members of the staff are shown playing a pickup basketball game on Pennsylvania Avenue.