Jan. 13 marks the third year in a row that the White House will be making top officials, including the President, Vice President and first Lady, available during a daylong (10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.) social media opportunity to ask questions via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr and ex-West Wing and current Transparent actor Bradley Whitford was trying to help the White House drive Web traffic.

The day has been dubbed the virtual Big Block of Cheese Day, a reference to both an 1837 Andrew Jackson public open house featuring a 1,400-pound block of cheese, and to NBC's West wing, which referred the event and whose cast has been helping promote the event (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex_jJlv5HKk).

In an e-mail from the White House account Whitford, who played Josh Lyman in West Wing, pointed out that "in my gig on the show we hosted our very own day like this, so I've been around the cheese block a few times." He and urged those with questions about Tuesday night's State of the Union address to log on and weigh in at hashtag #BigBlockOfCheeseDay.

Whitford said he would be online for the event (@WhitfordBradley) as would the real-life version, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough (@Denis44), of his boss on the show.