Peru and the Surgeon General

ALEX: Ready to try another? I hear there’s one from Peru that comes with a Surgeon’s General warning.

Peru, a country on the west coast of South America. Despite Alex’s warning, Peruvian coffee is said to be mild and light in flavour.

The surgeon general of the United States is the operational head of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government of the United States. The US surgeon general is nominated by the president of the United States and confirmed by the Senate.

In 2003, the Surgeon General of the US was Richard Carmona (born 1949); he was in the post from 2002 to 2006. In 2014 he wrote a book called 30 Days to a Better Brain, where he actually promoted coffee as a healthy drink that could improve mood and memory.

Hillary and Jeff

Alex’s children are named Hillary and Jeff, aged six and nine; he shares custody of them with his ex-wife. Hillary seem to have named their daughter after Hillary Clinton, previously discussed and frequently mentioned, as a sign of their Democrat allegiance.

Sumatra and Colombia

[Lorelai is sitting at a table as Alex walks over with two little coffee cups]
ALEX: Okay, now this is the Sumatra blend. It’s supposed to be a little sharper than the Colombian.

Sumatra, one of the Sunda Islands in Indonesia. Sumatran coffee is considered one of the world’s top speciality coffee, with an intense flavour.

Colombia, a country in South America which is one of the five biggest exporters of coffee in the world. Their coffee is said to have a mild, smooth flavour.

Toms and Moon

DAVE: I mean, you’ve got the potential, but you’re sloppy. I need a clean roll on the toms but powerful, like Moon.

The toms refer to tom drums a cylindrical drum with no snares, named from the Anglo-Indian and Sinhala language of Sri Lanka, derived from thammattama, from the Tamil word thappu, a type of drum.

Referring to Keith Moon, previously discussed, drummer for The Who, and one of Lane’s drum heroes.

Dave and Lane have come up with a plan to keep their relationship a secret from their bandmates – Dave will put Lane down in public, patronise her, and insult her. Lane is totally into it, as she loves zany schemes and keeping secrets.

Tipper

LORELAI: Thanks for the invite, I’m sure it’s gonna be great. Uh, so, uh, you guys have a good rehearsal. I’m gonna go on inside and write to Tipper. Great gal. See you guys later.

Mary “Tipper” Gore (born Mary Aitcheson in 1948), social issues advocate, activist, photographer and author who was the second lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001. She was married to Al Gore, the 45^th vice president of the United States, although they separated in 2010.

In 1985, Gore co-founded the Parents Music Resource Center, which advocated for labelling of record covers of releases featuring profane language, especially in the heavy metal, punk, and hip hop genres of music.

Lorelai pretends she supports Tipper Gore to try to put Zack off being attracted to her. It doesn’t seem to work. Perhaps he didn’t listen.

Pamela Des Barres

LORELAI: Do you need any help, please?
RORY: I’m good, Pamela Des Barres.

Pamela Des Barres (born Pamela Miller in 1948), rock and roll groupie, writer, musician, and actress. She is also a former member of the experimental Frank Zappa-produced music group, the GTOs.

Des Barres is best known for her 1987 memoir, I’m with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie, which details her experiences in the Los Angeles rock music scene of the 1960s and 1970s, and she was the model for the Penny Lane character, played by Kate Hudson, in Almost Famous.

Pamela was married to English actor and singer Michael Des Barres from 1977 to 1991. You may recall that Michael Des Barres played the role of Claude in “A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving”.

Rory calls Lorelai this as a tease because Zack is flirting with her. Lorelai does everything she can to deflect this unwanted attention, even though she was flattered when Dean’s dimwitted friend Todd fancied her, and he was a few years younger than Zack is now. She must be feeling a lot more confident about herself now.

“Good lawyers make for good neighbors”

TAYLOR: All the more reason to have a professional take a little looksee, huh? I mean, there’s a reason they say good lawyers make for good neighbors.
LUKE: Who the hell said that?

Taylor (deliberately?) misquotes the famous 1914 Robert Frost poem “Mending Wall”, which says, “Good fences make good neighbours”. Although widely quoted as a pithy piece of commonsense wisdom, the person who actually says this line in the poem is not viewed sympathetically by the poem’s narrator. (Just as Taylor is not viewed very sympathetically by the writers of the show).

Originally published in Frost’s second collection, North of Boston, it is one of the most commonly analysed and anthologised poems in modern literature.

Office Depot

TAYLOR: Luke, this is business. It needs to be done properly and legally.
LUKE: It’s a standard lease form, Taylor. I bought it at Office Depot.

Office Depot, office supply company headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. It was founded in 1986 and has 1400 retail outlets and annual sales of over $11 billion.

There was an Office Depot in West Hartford in 2003, and others in surrounding towns where Luke could have bought the lease forms – the store really does sell them.

A Wash

LORELAI: If I clean up Hug-a-World, does that cancel out me not getting rid of the boxes?
RORY: I’ll consider it a wash.

A wash, an idiom meaning that something is equal, with neither side having an advantage. It dates to the early twentieth century, and originally meant something disappointing, “a washout”. The meaning has gradually changed to mean that the situation is neither positive nor negative.

Uzbekistan

RORY: I learned my seven continents on Hug-a-World, don’t you remember? We used to squeeze it as tight as we could and then wherever our pinkies would end up, that’s where we were going to go together when I grew up.
LORELAI: Yes, many a trip to Uzbekistan was planned that way.

Uzbekistan, a country in Central Asia which is part of the Turkic world. It is a doubly landlocked country, being not only landlocked itself, but surrounded by other landlocked countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan. It’s capital is Tashkent, and the city of Samarkand in the country’s south is one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world, with a fascinating history, part of the Silk Road route. It’s been a drawcard for adventurous travellers since at least the 19^th century.