EMILY: You spend five seconds with a person and if they say one wrong thing, you turn on them and never give them a second chance … You are extremely judgmental, Lorelai.
Hmm … I wonder where Lorelai gets that from, Emily?
Emily is incensed that Lorelai cancelled her date to the concert with Peyton, since she had a terrible time on their dinner date, and they were obviously unsuited to each other. However, Emily doesn’t care about any of this, she cares that Lorelai rejected her friend’s son, therefore making Emily look bad by association (somehow). I feel as if Lorelai should have seen this coming … has she never met her mother before?
MICHEL: An eighteenth century bleeding bowl … When doctors bled patients, the blood had to go somewhere, no?
Michel refers to bloodletting, taking blood from a patient in order to prevent or cure illness. It is said to have been the most common medical treatment performed from antiquity until the late 19th century, for more than 2000 years. The main reason for its long-lived popularity is that it was very affordable, and almost anyone could perform it. Bloodletting is almost never used in modern medicine, and in the past, was almost overwhelmingly harmful to the patient.
A bleeding bowl is simply the bowl used to collect the blood during bloodletting, and this is what Michel bought at the auction. Notice in the picture that there is crescent piece missing from the bowl, to give the physician something to hold onto.
MICHEL: Your mother called. The auction people dropped the lamp that we bought at her place and dropped hers off here and she’s desperate to have it for some soiree at her house this evening.
A soirée is a sophisticated evening party, often with some kind of cultural or musical focal point, such as a classical music performer, or an intellectual discussion. It dates back to the 18th century in France and England, when wealthy, well-married ladies would invite accomplished guests to their home for refreshments in the evening. The word is simply the French word for “evening”.
LORELAI: Well, the quilting convention is sitting down to tea.
MICHEL: Uh, I’m doing internal cartwheels.
Quilting is the process of sewing different pieces of fabric together to form a multilayered quilt, which may be simple in design or a complex piece of art. There are numerous quilting societies in the US, and the inn is currently hosting a quilting convention.
Cartwheels [pictured] are an acrobatic maneuver commonly performed in gymnastics, as well as cheerleading and certain types of dance, including classical Indian dance. It is performed by bringing the hands to the floor one at a time while the body inverts. The legs travel over the body trunk while one or both hands are on the floor, and then the feet return to the floor one at a time, ending with the athlete standing upright. The phrase “performing cartwheels” is sometimes used metaphorically to mean that someone is exuberantly happy and excited. Compare when Lorelai said she was mentally doing a Jig.
LORELAI: There’s no way I could stand this guy for another night. I’ll catch Bowie the next time he does a farewell tour.
David Bowie’s Heathen Tour in 2002 was not his farewell tour, or his final tour, nor was it ever planned to be so or promoted as such. His final tour was A Reality Tour in support of his Reality album, beginning in Denmark in October 2003, and brought to a sudden end in June 2004.
David Bowie suffered a heart attack on stage in Prague on June 23, and the tour was cut short after a music festival in Germany the next evening due to continued discomfort. The tour was officially cancelled after Bowie was diagnosed with an acutely blocked artery that required an angioplasty procedure (performed on 26 June). It was only after this incident that David Bowie decided his touring days were over, and he retired from live performance in 2006.
Lorelai seems to be aware that time is running out to catch David Bowie live (he was then in his mid-fifties), and perhaps also that her chances of dating a wealthy man who can pay for the tickets again is slender. However, Lorelai could have seen David Bowie at Madison Square Garden in New York City on 15 December 2003 – which really would have been his next time in New York, and his farewell tour. This makes her comment seem rather prescient.
LORELAI: He continued talking and I just sat there thinking about Peter Cutler. How was Peter Cutler? Where was Peter Cutler? Was there any chance that Peter Cutler would appear and kill the man sitting across from me talking about torque?
Torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force in physics an mechanics, and is also known as rotational force. Torque forms part of the basic specification of an engine: the power output of an engine is expressed as its torque multiplied by its rotational speed of the axis.
The fact that torque is a homophone of the word “talk” has led to it often being chosen as the title of columns, blogs, magazines, and TV programs about motoring, or for car enthusiasts.
LORELAI: And I, in turn, chimed in with my story about getting sick on Andre Cold Duck in the back of Peter Cutler’s car in ninth grade.
Andre Cold Duck is a sparkling red wine, which is sweet with a fruity flavour. Made in the Sacramento area, it is marketed as “California champagne” and is very cheap. It was a go-to choice for high schoolers and college students in the 1980s due to its price and syrupy flavour, and at that time was supposedly the best-selling sparkling wine in the US. Its sickly sweet taste meant that it was common to throw up from drinking it, like Lorelai did, and the sugary overtones also meant a killer headache the next day if you overindulged. Beware of its properties if you want to try it out!
LORELAI: Yes, he sniffed, swirled, swished, and did every other pretentious and borderline-disgusting thing that you can do with a glass of wine in a public place, and he did it all while describing to me the vintage discrepancies and the wood they use for the barrels in Palermo and the grape crop projections for the following year.
Palermo is the capital of Sicily, an island region of Italy. Almost three thousand years old, it is rich in history and culture, and a popular tourist destination for its climate, music, nightlife, and cuisine. There are several vineyards and winemakers in the area.
LORELAI: The evening started well enough – that is, until we got to the car . . . a Jaguar XJ8 convertible with a 290 horsepower engine, in case you were wondering.
The Jaguar XJ is a luxury sedan marketed by Jaguar Cars from 1997 to 2003. The XJ8 was the standard or entry-level model, with leather upholstery and walnut wood trim interior. It does indeed have a 290 horsepower engine.
LORELAI: Come here a sec, you’ve got some dirt on your forehead. I’m sorry, it’s just the sign of the devil, my mistake.
Lorelai refers to the Mark of the Beast which is mentioned in the Bible in Revelation 13:16-17.
He causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, so that no one may buy or sell, except he who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.
The “beast” is also called “the false prophet” or Antichrist who “speaks like a dragon” – that is, speaks arrogantly, as if to place himself even above God. The meaning of the text has been hotly debated, but many biblical scholars think that “the beast” is the Roman Empire, the Emperor Nero, and the ruling elites. However, there is a popular view that “the beast” is the Devil himself. (See the entry for Antichrist for information on how the Antichrist and Devil have become conflated).
The Greek word translated as “mark”- charagma (χάραγμα) – can mean a mark that is engraved, imprinted, or branded. The word is the same one used to refer to stamped money, documents, or coins. As Roman coins carried the image of the emperor, it seems to fit in with the idea of “the beast” being the Roman Empire and emperor.
During the time when Nero was emperor, in 66 AD, the Jews revolted against the Romans and coined their own money so that they did not need to carry around this symbol of oppression to do business. This is about the same time that scholars believe Revelation was written, and some believe that these verses pertain to that, or are informed by it.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 