Spice Girls, Jonas Salk

LORELAI: No, see, Alex and I talked about everything we plan to do and how he expected to dress and how I expected to dress, and we coordinated to the point where I knew each piece of clothing I had to bring, down to the Spice Girls necklace I plan to wear Saturday morning for breakfast because we agreed to keep it a little whimsical.
RORY: So, not your Jonas Salk necklace?

Spice Girls, previously discussed. [Necklace pictured].

Jonas Salk (1914-1995), virologist and medical researcher who developed one of the first polio vaccines.

Toute de suite, Candy

LORELAI: [from upstairs] Rory? … Toute de suite, and I don’t mean the candy.

Toute de suite, French for “immediately, right away”.

Lorelai makes a pun on “Toot Sweets”, a song from the British 1968 family musical fantasy film, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, directed by Ken Hughes, and screenplay by Roald Dahl, loosely based on the 1964 novel by Ian Fleming, Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car. The film stars Dick Van Dyke as a widowed inventor named Caractactus Potts raising two children.

While trying to raise funds, Potts tries to market several failed inventions, including a musical hard candy you can whistle, which only turns out to attract stray dogs. It is that point that he and many others of the cast sing “Toot Sweets”. Later, Potts is able to become rich by selling the idea to a sweets maker, who markets them as Woof Sweets.

A real candy you could whistle called Melody Pops began being manufactured in the UK in the 1970s, seemingly inspired by Toots Sweets.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was adapted into a musical for the London West End in 2002, and became a Broadway production in 2005.

“Ten minutes”

LUKE: I go up there every ten minutes pretending to get something to keep them from doing something we don’t want … I got a good system, it works.
LORELAI: Every ten minutes?
LUKE: Like clockwork …
LORELAI: Ten minutes. Yeah, that’s pretty much the time it took to create Rory. And that included getting dressed and freshening my lipstick.

Luke was originally so concerned about Jess and Rory kissing in the apartment that he laid down the law and said they weren’t even allowed to sit on the sofa at the same time. Now he’s become so relaxed that he’s cool with them lying on the sofa in an embrace, making out for hours. He just checks on them every ten minutes.

Luke’s sudden change of attitude seems to have begun when he started dating Nicole, suggesting that his concern about Jess and Rory being together was at least partly fuelled by an unhappy awareness that he was without a partner, while his teenage nephew had a girlfriend.

Lorelai points out that ten minutes provides ample time to have sex, and says that conceiving Rory took her well under that time. (Yes, this is a slam to Christopher, but to be fair, he was a teenage boy). She doesn’t labour the point, but Luke immediately looks panicked.

Ben and J. Lo

LORELAI: I found everything – including a couple coupling.
LUKE: Oh, Rory and Jess?
LORELAI: No, Ben and J. Lo. Yes, Rory and Jess.

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, who were in a romantic relationship from 2002 to 2004. This attracted intense scrutiny by the press, and although they became engaged in November 2002, they called it off in January 2004, citing “excessive media attention”. Despite this, and both subsequently marrying other people, they continued to speak of each other fondly, and expressed regret over their split.

In a twist only Lorelai could have seen coming, Affleck and Lopez resumed their relationship in 2021, and were married in 2022. They still get a fair bit of media attention, but have probably learned how to deal with it better by now.

Déjà vu

LORELAI: Déjà vu, huh?
RORY: Déjà vu.

Déjà vu, French loanword (literally “already seen”) for the phenomenon of feeling as though one has lived through the present situation before. It is an illusion of memory whereby – despite a strong sense of recollection – the time, place, and context of the “previous” experience are uncertain or impossible. Approximately two-thirds of people report experiencing déjà vu at least once in their lives.

Lorelai and Rory use the word jokingly to refer to the fact that they have each recently caught the other one kissing their boyfriend, causing some awkwardness.

Encyclopedia Brown

JESS: Got a lot of books here. Anything in particular?
LORELAI: It’s one of Luke’s.
JESS: Well, if it doesn’t have Encyclopedia Brown in the title, that narrows it down a lot.

Encyclopedia Brown, a series of 29 children’s books written by Donald J. Sobol; the first one was in 1963, and the last in 2012 (posthumous). The books follow the adventures of a boy detective, Leroy Brown, nicknamed “Encyclopedia” for his intelligence and range of knowledge.

Jess’ comments suggests that most of the books Luke has are his Encyclopedia Brown books from his childhood. Note the similarity with Lorelai reading all the Nancy Drew books when she was young.

SoHo

LUKE: Got a great book, it has walking tours of old historic Manhattan. You know, before Disney got a hold of it. The SoHo one’s pretty good.

SoHo, neighbourhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists’ lofts and art galleries, and has also been known for its variety of shops ranging from trendy upscale boutiques to national and international chain store outlets.

The name “SoHo” derives from the area being “South of Houston Street”, and was coined in 1962 by urban planner Chester Rapkin. The name also recalls Soho, an area in London’s West End.

Note a few changes in Luke since he started dating Nicole – he readily discusses fashion, musicals, and historic walking tours with Lorelai. She is a little surprised at how authoritative he has become in these areas so quickly. I can’t help feeling Luke is slightly rubbing her face in it, since he has always resisted Lorelai’s attempts to get him interested in such things.

The book Luke has is possibly fictional, although there are plenty of books in real life with historic walking tours of New York.

Manhattan Before Disney

LUKE: Got a great book, it has walking tours of old historic Manhattan. You know, before Disney got a hold of it.

I don’t know if you can say Disney “got a hold” of Manhattan, but they do have a significant presence there, like other major corporations. Their offices were at this time on the Upper West Side, there was a Disney store on Fifth Avenue [pictured], a TV station in Times Square, and the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway, to name a few. The Disney cruise lines also dock at a pier on the Hudson River.

Broadway Baby

LORELAI: Well, aren’t we just a Broadway baby.

“Broadway Baby”, a song from the musical Follies, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Goldman. First performed in 1971, it takes place in a crumbling Broadway theatre, and follows a reunion of former showgirls who performed in the 1920s and ’30s. It won seven Tony Awards, and “Broadway Baby” has become a popular standard.

Hairspray and The Producers

LORELAI: I cannot picture you watching Hairspray.
LUKE: It was okay. I liked The Producers better.

Hairspray, musical with music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, with book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, based on John Water’s 1988 film of the same name. Set in 1962 Baltimore, the story follows teenage Tracy Turnblad’s dream to dance on a local TV dance program. When Tracy wins a role on the show, she becomes a celebrity overnight, leading to social change as Tracy campaigns for the show’s racial integration.

The musical opened in Seattle in 2002 and moved to Broadway later that year. In 2003, Hairspray won eight Tony Awards, including one for Best Musical. It ran for 2,642 performances before closing in 2009. Hairspray has also had national tours, a West End production, numerous foreign productions, and was adapted as a 2007 musical film.

The Producers, previously discussed. Lorelai mentioned wanting to see this musical, but thought it was too hard to get tickets. Luke and Nicole don’t seem to have had any trouble – a sign of Luke leaving Lorelai behind a little bit through his relationships with Nicole.