Category: S1Ep17: The Break Up Part 2

Where It’s At

This song by Beck is playing in the background when Rory and Lane arrive at Madeline’s party and continues throughout the introductions to Madeline and Louise.

Where It’s At is from Beck’s acclaimed 1996 album Odelay, although he performed the song in concert earlier, including at Lollapalooza in 1995. The song went to #61 in the charts and #5 in the alternative music charts, earning Beck a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, while the music video won Best Male Video at the MTV Awards. The song uses samples from various sources, including one from a sex education album for teenagers – rather apt for Louise and Madeline’s later actions.

The cool alternative music at the party suggests they hired the same (rather implausible) DJ from the Chilton Winter Formal.

Creuset

SOOKIE (to Lorelai): Could you peek inside the kitchen for me and tell me if the orange Creuset is on the left burner?

Le Creuset is a French company which makes colourfully-enamelled cast iron premium cookware such as saucepans, casseroles and large covered pots. They began manufacturing in 1925, and their signature colour is orange, just like Sookie’s piece. This seems to be the pan that she wants used to sweat the onions.

“Sweat the onions”

SOOKIE: I’m just – do you hear something?
LORELAI: Like what?
SOOKIE: Like someone using the wrong size pan to sweat the onions in.

In culinary terms, “sweating” means to cook something over a low heat in a small amount of fat or oil, usually in a covered pan or pot. It’s usually done with vegetables such as onions, carrots, and celery, and the idea is to soften them without browning before you add other ingredients. Sweating concentrates the flavour and releases sweetness, with the vegetables becoming tender, and onions in particular, translucent.

“The wrong sized pan” for sweating onions is probably one which is too small and would heat up too quickly.

Mad Money

LORELAI: Here is the phone and some mad money. If for any reason you think you’re not going to be home by twelve, you call me.

“Mad money” is an informal expression meaning a small amount of money to be used as an emergency fund. It is especially applied to girls and women who are out on a date or a night out, and may need extra money for a taxi home in case they have an argument with or become separated from their companion/s. The expression dates to around 1920, and the origin of it has not been made clear to me; I presume “mad” in case you and your date get mad (angry) at each other.

As Rory will be driving herself (at last by now she really does have her driver’s licence), Lorelai probably intends the money to be used for car fuel, or a taxi if the car breaks down.

Garden weasel

LANE: Because you just broke up. I mean I’d be perfectly fine to just hang out here and listen to music and talk, not talk, whatever.
RORY: No, I am not hanging out. We are going to this party. It’s gonna be great. I don’t want to dwell on this. That’s final.
LORELAI: [entering room] Don’t argue with her or you’ll find yourself the proud owner of three garden weasels.

A garden weasel is a multi-purpose gardening tool which allows you to cultivate, loosen, and aerate the soil, while also being used as a weeder. It was invented in 1974 in Germany.

Just as being sad over a breakup made Lorelai uncharacteristically interested in cooking, it seems to have made Rory very interested in gardening, which is out of character for her.

“Why don’t you see if Lane can come with you?”

LORELAI: Why don’t you see if Lane can come with you [to the party]? You know that way if the socialising doesn’t turn out how you planned, you got a friendly face around.
RORY: Okay, good idea. Thank you.

How Mrs Kim ever allowed Lane to go out to a co-ed teenage party in Hartford on the Sabbath when they would be getting home fairly late is a real mystery. Especially if it was in order to comfort Rory over a break up with a boyfriend that Mrs Kim thought she never should have had. I can’t imagine how Lane ever pulled this one off.

The Bell Jar

LORELAI: You’re going to a Chilton party?
RORY: Yes I am.
LORELAI: Honey, why don’t you just stay home and read The Bell Jar? Same effect.

The Bell Jar is the only novel written by American poet Sylvia Plath, and first published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas in 1963. It is semi-autobiographical, detailing the nervous breakdown of a college student named Esther Greenwood in the 1950s, including a suicide attempt which sees her committed to a psychiatric hospital.

Plath killed herself about a month after the novel’s initial publication in the UK, and it was first published under her name in 1967. It wasn’t published in the US until 1971, and was adapted into film in 1979. Although early reviews were lukewarm, it’s now often a set text in high school and college courses.

Lorelai is suggesting that going to the party will be depressing, like reading The Bell Jar, although the book is actually rather witty, with a critical eye on 1950s society, and many moments of black comedy. Esther’s journey is ultimately one of hope and healing; a tragic counterpoint to the events which shortly followed the book’s publication.