Happy Cheese Weasel Day!

Today is April 3rd, Cheese Weasel Day, and it’s time to celebrate those in your life who fix your computer on the daily. That’s right: it’s time to hide a piece of cheese under your favorite sysadmin’s mousepad or, barring that, bring in a nice cheese plate for everyone to share. While the origins are murky, the holiday seems to have started around 1992 when two techies spotted a weasel carrying a wrapped Kraft Single. This, they assumed, must be the Cheese Weasel, and therefore, that it must be Cheese Weasel Day. After all, what else would a weasel be doing with cheese if he weren’t headed to your local data center to leave the sweet, yellow goodness on your favorite techie’s desk?

The practice of the holiday seems to spread through word of mouth. I first heard of it when I showed up to work on April 3rd many years ago and a fantastic spread of exotic cheeses was laid out in the middle of the office. It wasn’t until a few hours later, after the food coma had started to wear down, that I started to think about the legend, “The Cheese Weasel leaves cheese under the keyboards of good tech workers… cheese under the keyboards… keyboards.” I looked, and there was a cheese single, still wrapped. I wonder how long it would have lasted had I not found it.

Cheese Weasel fan Chris Forbes has even created a web store of paraphernalia but all you really need is some nice gouda, cheddar, and maybe a bleu with some crackers to truly celebrate the day. The methods of celebration vary. Some prefer to celebrate with the best cheeses and freshest baguettes, while others eschew that practice and insist on keeping with the tradition of cheese food singles. Whichever way you go today, remember that the Cheese Weasel is watching, so be kind to your programmers, developers, and system architects.