Footnotes to the TV series
LORELAI: Um, Drella? Drella! Please, a little softer.
DRELLA: Hey, do I look like I got Panasonic stamped on my ass?
Panasonic is a Japanese electronics corporation. Harpist Drella (Alex Borstein) is saying that she’s not a stereo whose music can be turned up and down at someone’s whim.
SOOKIE: Oh my God, today was Rory’s first day!
LORELAI: Yes, and I was supposed to look together and fabulous, and not like I’d been up all night playing quarters.
Quarters is a drinking game where people toss quarters (25 cent coins) so that they land in a particular place, usually a glass.
Paris’s stated ambition is to be the valedictorian when she graduates. In the United States and some other countries, the valedictorian is the student chosen to give the farewell address at the graduation ceremony. Often this is the student with the highest grade average, and as Paris is currently the top student in the class, she is on track to achieve her goal.
Chilton’s school newspaper, The Franklin, is named for Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, widely revered for his numerous and wide-ranging achievements. A scientist and inventor, he was also a political theorist, diplomat, and activist who campaigned to unify the thirteen colonies of 18th century America.
Benjamin Franklin was a successful newspaper printer and editor, becoming wealthy as the publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette. This is the reason for honouring him in the title of the school newspaper.
We see Rory in her English Literature class at Chilton, and the teacher discusses Russian literature, and how it was influenced by both English and French culture.
The teacher mentions Russian author Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. He is best known for his novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877), both seen as eminent examples of realist fiction.
The English novelist Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is said by the teacher to be Tolstoy’s favourite author. The perennially popular Dickens is regarded as one of the greatest writers of his era, and Tolstoy did indeed see him as an enormous influence on his own work. His novel David Copperfield (1850) was Tolstoy’s favourite, and in fact Dicken’s favourite of his own novels, being heavily based on Charles Dickens’ life. Other Dickens novels that the teacher mentions as influential on Tolstoy are Great Expectations (1861), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and Little Dorrit (1857).
We learn that the week before the class studied Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881), whose best-known works include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880).
The French author George Sand (the pen name of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin, 1804-1876) is mentioned as one of Dostoevsky’s favourites. She wrote numerous novels and short stories, with Consuelo (1850) considered her greatest work.
Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) is another French author whose works were beloved by Dostoevsky. One of the founders of literary realism in Europe, Balzac is most famous for La Comédie humaine (“The Human Comedy”), a series of more than 90 interlinked novels, stories, and essays depicting French society in the 19th century.
The classroom scene shows what a huge step up in academic standards Rory has taken at her new school: a complete contrast to studying Huckleberry Finn at Stars Hollow High, with the other girls more interested in nail polish than the text. Paris may be obnoxious, but at least she is giving Rory something to aspire to as a student.
We can see that a whole new world of literature will open up to Rory at Chilton, feeding and validating her love of books.
MISS PATTY: Oh, ladies, what do I see? Naked girls. No, no, keep those leotards on. This is not Brazil.
Miss Patty is no doubt referring to the topless and nude beaches of Brazil.
MISS PATTY: Visualize, ladies. It’s a Thanksgiving Day parade. You’re standing on Fifth Avenue.
Miss Patty is referring to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, held in New York City each Thanksgiving since 1924. Presented by Macy’s department store, it is the largest parade held in the United States. Teams of baton twirlers are a common feature of the parade.
This patriotic march by American composer John Philip Sousa plays while Miss Patty teaches baton twirling to a class of little girls. Sousa wrote The Stars and Stripes Forever in 1896, and it was first performed in 1897 to immediate enthusiasm. Generally considered Sousa’s masterwork, it is the official National March of the United States, and is usually played for the US President after he finishes a speech.
The Stars and Stripes Forever also has a special meaning in show business, especially the theatre and the circus, where it is known as “The Disaster March”. Traditionally it is used to signal that there is a life-threatening emergency so that staff can handle the audience’s exit without causing panic. One notable use of it in this context was at a circus fire in Hartford in 1944, where at least 160 people were killed.
It’s use in the show at this point may be meant to signify what a disaster of a day Lorelai is having.
LORELAI: My clothes were at the cleaners, and I had the fuzzy clock and it didn’t purr on time.
LUKE: It didn’t purr?
LORELAI: It’s fuzzy. It purrs.
We learn during the show that Lorelai has a penchant for novelty clocks, more than one of which make animal sounds or resemble animals. They not infrequently seem to be of poor quality and let her down, as the fuzzy purring clock did this time.
LORELAI: This is a jumbo coffee morning. I need coffee in an IV.
LUKE: I can give you tea and a Balance bar.
Balance bar is the brand name of a nutritional energy bar, first released in 1992, and adhering to the principles of the Zone Diet expounded by Dr Barry Sears, promoting a balance of carbohydrates, protein, and fat. In 2000, the company was bought by Kraft Foods.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 