Footnotes to the TV series
These are the chips that Louise and Madeline are eating in the school dining hall for lunch, counting each one to make sure they don’t go over their (obviously tiny) calorie limit. Fritos are a brand of corn chips created in Texas in 1932 by Charles Elmer Doolin and since 1961 produced by the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo.
LORELAI: Fifteen thousand dollars?
RORY: We’re never eating again.
LORELAI: I don’t have fifteen thousand dollars. I’ve never had fifteen thousand dollars. I’m trying to picture fifteen thousand dollars – I can’t! That’s how unfamiliar fifteen thousand dollars and I are with each other!
Apparently Lorelai bought her house for less than $15 000, or the downpayment was less than that. That would seem almost unbelievable today, but is plausible for a house in rural Connecticut needing urgent repairs in the mid 1990s (for the downpayment, not the entire price).
KIRK: You have termites … Tens of thousands of them. Subterranean, drywood, the whole gamut.
Termites are an insect closely related to cockroaches, and sometimes called “white ants”, although they aren’t ants, or even close to them. They are considered a pest because of their wood-eating habits, and can cause significant damage to wooden structures.
There are three groups of termites: dampwood, drywood, and subterranean, which would be the “whole gamut”. Subterranean termites live underground in nests or mounds, dampwood termites eat wood exposed to rain or soil, while drywood termites thrive in warm environments – which, if you live somewhere cold, means that they live living in your nice warm wooden house!
It seems unlikely that Lorelai has all possible types of termites, but it also seems unlikely Kirk is qualified as a termite expert. She almost certainly has a serious infestation of drywood termites.
This song plays as Lorelai wakes up happy, gets coffee, goes outside, and falls through the porch. It was written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, published in 1955. It was introduced in the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock film, The Man Who Knew Too Much, sung by Doris Day. Her rendition went to #2 in the US and #1 in the UK, and the film received the Academy Award for Best Song. It became Doris Day’s signature song, and is regarded as one of the best songs in cinema history.
The song popularised the phrase que sera sera to indicate a sort of cheery fatalism, although the phrase itself was used as a heraldic motto as early as the 16th century. It is an English mistranslation of “what will be, will be” from the Spanish; in Spanish it would be lo que será, será. No such similar phrase is known of in Spanish or Italian, it has always been an English saying.
In The Man Who Knew Too Much, Doris Day sings the song in the hopes that her kidnapped son will hear it. The song’s message of hope is often used in film and television juxtaposed against disastrous events to create a moment of black comedy, of which we see a very mild version in Gilmore Girls. The joke is that Lorelai has no idea what is coming.
(It might seem unusual to go out on your porch in the your pyjamas early in the morning in the depths of winter to drink your coffee, but Lorelai has that special relationship with snow. And they’re actually in California).
Lorelai has this book in her bag when they are at the diner, one of the textbooks she has been studying from. It’s by Bradley R. Schiller, and was first published in 1999.
LORELAI: I am Magenta, Rory usually opts for Janet, and I … was thinking that you could put on some fishnet stockings, a leather teddy, some platform boots, and go with us as Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
Magenta (played by Patricia Quinn) [pictured] is the maid at the castle in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. A popular choice for dress-ups, she has wild frizzy reddish-brown hair, heavy Goth make-up, and a maid’s uniform. Apart from referencing Lorelai starting at the inn as a maid (she possibly still has her old uniform to wear as a costume), she really would look great as Magenta.
Janet Weiss (played by Susan Sarandon) is the innocent young woman who comes to the castle. She has a girl-next-door look with pink dress, white cardigan, and white handbag. Rory would make a convincing Janet as the seemingly wholesome girl with a deeply repressed sexual side just waiting to be unleashed. Note that Janet is unfaithful to her fiance, Brad – the show keeps linking Rory with infidelity.
Dr Frank-n-Furter (played by Tim Curry), previously discussed, and described by Lorelai.
LORELAI: Okay. So we should celebrate. Hey, how about we get all dressed up tonight and hit The Rocky Horror Picture Show?
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the 1975 musical comedy horror film, previously mentioned. Directed by Jim Sharman, it is based on the 1973 stage production of The Rocky Horror Show, with music, book, and lyrics by Richard O’Brien (who co-wrote the film’s screenplay and plays Riff Raff in the film).
The film begins with a young engaged couple named Brad and Janet who get lost one night and end up at the castle of a cross-dressing bisexual mad scientist named Dr Frank-n-Furter, who is from another planet. The film both parodies and celebrates science fiction and horror films from the 1930s to the 1970s, set against the backdrop of the glam rock era, which allowed much exploration and transgression of gender and sexuality.
The quirky film originally struggled to find an audience, but midnight screenings soon led to it gaining a cult following, especially in the LGBT community. Free admission was often given to those who arrived dressed as the characters, so it became an early example of cosplay fandom, and there is traditionally strong audience participation, with the audience encouraged to sing, dance, and shout lines from the film. Can you see why this is a film Lorelai would love?
The Rocky Horror Picture Show continues to be shown in cinemas, making it the longest-running release in cinema history. Midnight screenings are still popular, but Stars Hollow is showing it at the sensible time of 8 pm. Even so, I don’t believe Mrs Kim would have approved of Lane seeing the film on a school night, although Rory intends to invite her.
RORY: Maybe I didn’t study hard enough. Maybe I got cocky.
LORELAI: Maybe you need a major mud bath/salt glow/chill pill combo.
Take a chill pill is American slang meaning that the person addressed needs to relax. To chill means to act cool, and the concept of chill pills probably comes from drugs like Xanax, Valium, or even Ritalin, as if the person needs to start acting as relaxed as someone under medication. It dates to the late 1980s, with use peaking in the 1990s.
Lorelai humorously suggests that Rory should combine her “chill pill” with relaxing spa treatments such as a mud bath or a salt glow because she’s acting so stressed that a simple pill won’t be enough.
RORY: I got a 740 Verbal and a 760 Math.
In 2001, the PSAT was split into three sections, not two: Math, Writing, and Critical Reading, and the maxiumum score in each section was 80.
Rory seems to have taken the pre-1997 PSAT, which only had two sections, Math and Verbal, and had a maximum score of 800 in each section. No doubt the writer (Linda Loiselle Guzik) based it on her memories of taking the PSAT in high school, not the PSAT then in use.
Rory’s scores are extremely good in both categories, putting her in the top 1%, and making her a virtual certainty as a Merit Scholarship semi-finalist. Somehow she never seemed to receive a Merit Scholarship to help her pay for her college education, and we never hear of it as a possibility.
LORELAI: Okay, just remember these are PSATs, okay, so it’s like the Baby Gap, they don’t count as much.
The Gap Inc is a worldwide clothing retailer founded in 1969 by Donald and Doris Fisher, with its headquarters in San Francisco. The Fisher family is still heavily involved in the company, and own much of its stock. Baby Gap is their range of children’s clothes (not literally for babies).
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 