MRS. KIM: Lane, come down for your snack! LANE: It’s tea and melba toast time, gotta go.
Melba toast is dry, crisp, thinly sliced toast which has been grilled twice, often served with soup or salad, or topped with pate. It is named after Australian opera star Dame Nellie Melba, born Helen Mitchell (1861-1931), and thought to date to 1897, when the singer was very ill, and this thin toast became the staple of her diet. The toast was created for her by French chef Auguste Escoffier. You can buy them in boxes, just like crackers.
Lane’s snack is therefore very dry and uninteresting, just a cut above dry bread and water.
LANE: Okay, I’m dying for news. Give me some headlines. RORY: Oh, well, I’ve got a debate coming up. And, um, Dean’s been working extra hours lately saving up for a new motorcycle, so I hardly see him. Mom and I haven’t done laundry in three weeks, but I have taken to jumping into the gigantic pile of dirty clothes while we play our Reader’s Digest World Famous Polka CD that we got used for ninety-nine cents.
I wasn’t able to find a World Famous Polka CD released by Reader’s Digest, but I did find Polka Party with Myron Floren on his accordion, released on CD in 1991 by Reader’s Digest. It’s possible that “world famous polka” is simply the sarcastic way that that Rory refers to it – “our world famous polka CD”. Otherwise it’s simply fictional.
Among the snippets from her life that Rory tells Lane is that she has hardly seen Dean since the Bid-on-a-Basket Fundraiser, almost a week ago. Conveniently, he has started working extra hours to save up for a new motorcycle, just after they got into a fight. I think we can assume they aren’t on the best of terms at the moment.
LANE: I only get five minutes a day of outside phone time but unlimited time to call the Psalm a Day line. A big ripoff, by the way, because Psalm 79 has been on there for three straight days. That’s not in keeping with what their name clearly implies, which is a new psalm per day, every day. Not the same tired one from the previous two days.
Mrs Kim has given Lane unlimited phone privileges to call the Psalm a Day Line, a number where you pay by the minute to hear a psalm each day – the same psalm being up all day.
Psalm 79 is identified in the Old Testament as “a psalm of Asaph”. Asaph was a member of the guild of musicians, and he may have either written, transcribed, or collected the psalms with his name attached, or they were produced by his guild, or written in a style he initiated.
Psalm 79 is a communal lament upon the destruction of Jerusalem, probably by the Babylonian army in 587 BC, and in particular the defilement of the Temple by allowing dead bodies to lie there, without burial.
The psalm expresses some sentiments pertinent to Lane’s situation, in particular asking how long God will remain angry at them and begging for mercy. It mentions hoping the groans of prisoners will help change God’s mind, just as Lane hopes her mother’s anger will eventually soften so that Lane can be released from her prison.
O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple, they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
They have left the dead bodies of your servants as food for the birds of the sky, the flesh of your own people for the animals of the wild. They have poured out blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury the dead. We are objects of contempt to our neighbors, of scorn and derision to those around us.
How long, Lord? Will you be angry forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire? Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the kingdoms that do not call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob and devastated his homeland.
Do not hold against us the sins of past generations; may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need.
Help us, God our Saviour, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake. Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Before our eyes, make known among the nations that you avenge the outpoured blood of your servants. May the groans of the prisoners come before you; with your strong arm preserve those condemned to die. Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times the contempt they have hurled at you, Lord.
Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you forever; from generation to generation we will proclaim your praise.
RORY: So I guess you’re still grounded over that whole Henry thing, huh? LANE: Are you kidding? It’s the mother of all groundings. My mom’s done everything but slap a Dr. Dre ankle bracelet on me.
Dr. Dre, professional name of Andre Young (born 1965), rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He found fame as a member of the gangsta rap group N.W.A., became president of Death Row Records, and brought out a Grammy-winning single “Let It Ride”, from his debut 1992 album, The Chronic. In 1993 he left Death Row Records to establish his own label, Aftermath Entertainment, which signed Eminem, and his most recent album at this point was the 1999 solo album, 2001.
He committed a number of violent crimes in the 1990s. In 1992, he was found guilty of breaking the jaw of aspiring rap producer, Damon Thomas, and placed under electronic house arrest for 90 days with a tagging device around his ankle. He served a further 30 days after pleading guilty to the battery of a police officer during a brawl in a New Orleans hotel lobby. There was another period of house arrest in 1994 after leading police on a 90 mph car chase with a blood alcohol reading double the legal limit.
Amusingly, Dr. Dre brought out a line of highly successful headphones called Beats in 2008, so that Lane’s comment now sounds as if it is referring to a piece of technology made by Dr. Dre, rather than for him.
[Rory walks over to the window, stretching the phone cord across the diner]
LUKE: Hey, watch it. LORELAI: Yeah, duck Harvey.
A reference to the 1950 comedy-drama film Harvey, directed by Henry Koster, and based on the 1944 play of the same name by Mary Chase. James Stewart stars as an eccentric man who has a six foot three and a half invisible white rabbit as a best friend, named Harvey. He explains during the film that Harvey is a pooka, a mischievous but benign creature from Celtic mythology.
Harvey was financially successful, and received warm praise from critics for its charm, whimsy, and Stewart’s excellent performance. It was first released on video in 1990.
When Luke calls out in alarm about Rory stretching the phone cord across the diner, Lorelai quips, “Duck, Harvey”, because the diner is empty, and the only person who could be endangered by it must be the invisible Harvey.
RORY: Lane. How did you know I was here? LANE: Telescope. I got a clean shot at Luke’s. I saw you and your mom go in.
Lane is now having “the mother of all groundings” since Mrs Kim found out that she had secretly been talking to Henry, and had attempted to have a date with him. She is confined to the house, not even being permitted to attend school (Mrs Kim has told Stars Hollow High that Lane has a highly contagious illness, and gained permission to home school her daughter for two weeks).
Lane using a telescope to spy on Rory so she can feel connected to the outside world may be an allusion to the 1954 mystery thriller film Rear Window. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, it stars James Stewart as a photographer recuperating from a broken leg. Confined to a wheelchair in his Greenwich Village apartment, he uses binoculars, and the telescopic lens of his camera, to spy on his neighbours, solving a murder mystery in the process.
Rear Window was the #8 film of 1954 at the box office. It received critical acclaim, and is considered one of the greatest films of all time.
LORELAI: This whole morning has been a little Twilight Zone-y. LUKE: Or Outer Limits-y … Great show, just as eerie, same era, but no one ever references it. LORELAI: Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t speak geek.
The Outer Limits, an anthology television series originally broadcast from 1963 to 1965. It is often compared to The Twilight Zone, but stories were more science-fiction based than fantasy or supernatural, and were more straight action and suspense, often showing the human spirit spirit confronting dark existential forces, either from within or without.
The Outer Limits was very influential on the development of Star Trek – one reason why Luke might be a fan of the show. The Outer Limits was revived in 1995, and its last episode shown in January 2002, so Luke may very well have only recently finished watching the new series (and could be missing the show now it’s gone).
Lorelai is completely full of it for saying she doesn’t “speak geek”. She is a huge fan of Star Trek herself.
RORY: Okay, 3:30 on Friday – my debate at Chilton. Write it down.
As well as working on the school newspaper, The Franklin, Rory is now on the debating team at Chilton. According to Paris, Rory is one of the best public speakers in the school, and as an aspiring journalist, it makes sense for her to gain experience debating in a public forum. An apt choice of extracurricular activity for Rory that will look good on her CV, and one I’m sure Paris pushed her into doing.
LORELAI: Hey, let’s sit at the counter. RORY: Nah, the counter, those are not the power seats. LORELAI: Yes, but with no one here we can sit at either end and play bagel hockey.
In North America, “hockey” nearly always refers to ice hockey. Hockey is usually called “field hockey” in North America.
Bagel Hockey appears to use a bagel as the puck – the little disc that is pushed across the ice with hockey sticks in an attempt to get it into the goal.
LORELAI: Hey, let’s sit at the counter. RORY: Nah, the counter, those are not the power seats. LORELAI: Yes, but with no one here we can sit at either end and play bagel hockey.
A bagel is a ring-shaped bread roll which is boiled before being baked, resulting in a dense, doughy interior with an often crisp crust. It originates from the Jewish communities of Poland, and is first mentioned in the 17th century, although very similar breads can be found in 13th century Arabic cookbooks, and a bagel-like bread was made in Poland as early as the 14th century.
They are a popular bread product in North America and Poland, especially in areas with a large Jewish population. Brought to the US by Jewish Polish immigrants, they came into general use by the last quarter of the twentieth century.
They are so closely associated with Jewish culture that the verb “to bagel” refers to a Jewish person deliberately using typically Jewish words or phrases in front a stranger to signal to them that they are also Jewish.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 