LANE: So, Janie Fertman’s trying to be my friend again. RORY: Yikes. What kind of vibe are you giving her? LANE: Oh, my patented Keith Richards circa 1969 ‘don’t mess with me’ vibe ….
Keith Richards (born 1943), famous as co-founder, co-songwriter, guitarist, and secondary singer for English rock band the Rolling Stones, previously mentioned. As a member of the Rolling Stones, Richards was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004. He is regarded as one of the world’s best guitarists and the best creator of guitar riffs. [photo shows Richards in 1969]
SOOKIE: Yeah, Francie, eventually, we’re all gonna take the same long vacation.
We’re now up to three characters named Francine, Francie or Fran – Rory’s paternal grandmother, the head of the Puffs at Chilton, and the baker who owns the Dragonfly. None of them are particularly helpful to the Gilmore girls, despite their outwardly inoffensive or friendly demeanour.
FRAN: Oh, I don’t enjoy vacations. I toured the California Gold Country ten years ago. It was hot and the bus smelled.
The Gold Country (also known as Mother Lode Country) is a historic region in northern California, mostly around the Sierra Nevada and into the Sacramento Valley. It’s famous for the gold mines which attracted immigrants, known as the ’49ers, during the 1849 California Gold Rush. Most of the mines were shut down in 1942 because of World War II, but several gold rush towns are still popular tourist attractions.
Fran would have taken her bus tour around the Gold Country in 1991, presumably in summer since she says it was hot. Summers are hot and dry in this region.
FRAN: But I can’t sell you the property … I just couldn’t. You know, I have no siblings and no children and in a way, that place is really the only family I have. I’m the last Weston left, so I plan to own it forever.
Lorelai and Sookie are sure that sweet old Fran will be happy to sell them The Dragonfly without driving a hard bargain, but although Fran is thrilled at the idea of them starting their own inn, she refuses to sell. She is the last of the Westons, having no siblings or children, and the Dragonfly is the closest thing she has to a family. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, because she has left the property derelict, which isn’t a great way to treat your family. Surely giving it a new lease of life would be better for the Dragonfly? Maybe Lorelai should have just paid for all that cake she ate.
Lorelai and Sookie try to tactfully ask what happens to the property when Fran dies, but she doesn’t take any of their hints, and acts as if she is immortal, so that they reach a frustrating impasse. I feel as if Lorelai and Sookie should have at least made an offer and put it in writing – the temptation of cash might have eventually changed Fran’s mind.
SOOKIE: ‘Fran’s Old Place’! It’ll be like Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. People will be trying to figure out who Fran is.
Ruth’s Chris Steak House is a chain of over one hundred upscale steakhouses across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The original Chris Steakhouse was founded in New Orleans in 1927 by Chris Matulich. It was purchased in 1965 by divorced single mother Ruth Fertel, who needed money to send her sons to college.
The name was changed to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in 1976 after a fire forced Fertel to move the restaurant to a new property. It allowed her to to keep some continuity, as she was legally not able to use the name Chris Steakhouse for any other locations than the original restaurant. Fertel admitted she always hated the name.
Note the similarities between Ruth and Lorelai – both struggling single mothers who need money for their children’s education. Both will even suffer the setback of a fire!
LORELAI: It’s the title search for the Rachel property. And guess who owns it. SOOKIE: Tell me it’s not that bastard Donald Trump.
Donald Trump (born 1946), American businessman, media personality, and politician. He became president of his father’s real estate business in 1971 and renamed it The Trump Organisation. Trump expanded the company’s operations to building and renovating skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. He later started various side ventures, mostly by licensing his name. Trump and his businesses have been involved in more than 4,000 state and federal legal actions, including six bankruptcies. He owned the Miss Universe brand of beauty pageants from 1996 to 2015.
Sookie seems to think of Donald Trump as someone who owns so much real estate, any random property could very well be his. Although it seems comically unlikely he would own a rundown inn in rural Connecticut, he did have a history of buying derelict hotels and doing them up.
It’s probably best that Sookie doesn’t know that Donald Trump will later become the President of the United States (2017-2021).
In American slang, a “money pit” is any property, possession or business which takes up an increasingly large amount of money to maintain it – usually more than was foreseen or budgeted for.
Michel is possibly referencing the 1986 comedy film The Money Pit, starring Tom Hanks and Shelley Long as a couple struggling to renovate their recently bought house. It closely parallels the 1948 Cary Grant comedy, Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House, and received lukewarm reviews. The movie does have a happy ending, a possible foreshadowing that Lorelai and Sookie will have one too.
LORELAI: It shouldn’t be too flashy. SOOKIE: How about something historical, like ‘The Paul Revere’?
Paul Revere (1735-1818) was a Boston silversmith and patriot of the American Revolution. He is best known for his midnight ride to alert the colonial militia in 1775 to the approach of the British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord. It was dramatised in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1861 poem, Paul Revere’s Ride, which significantly increased Revere’s stature, and made him part of American legend.
LUKE: Well, I should be getting going. You gonna write this meal off? LORELAI: Why? LUKE: Oh, we talked business. You gotta be thinking about these things. LORELAI: No, I mean, why? I’m not paying for it. [Luke sighs] Exactly.
How often did Lorelai and Rory get free meals from Luke? We almost never see them pay, and they seem to storm off or run out without either eating or paying quite a bit. It might help explain how they manage to eat out so often without blowing the budget …
LORELAI: So, who taught you about all this business stuff? Your dad? LUKE: Please. My dad didn’t even have a checking account until I finally got taller then he was. He bought this land with cash from working construction, built this place himself. Didn’t have a bookkeeper, an accountant, or anything. LORELAI: Wow, so you had no one showing you the ropes. LUKE: Nope, I figured I had to just dive in on my own, fail if that’s my destiny, and forget what the experts say.
Note that this back story changes slightly later on.
Is it really possible that Luke learned nothing at all from his father before he died? William Danes ran a hardware store, he must have known something about business, and Luke worked alongside him when he wasn’t at school. Surely he picked up a few hints at the very least, especially as William would have been expecting him to take over the store one day (which, in a sense, he did).
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 