Mariah Carey’s Crack-Up

FRANCIE: Mariah Carey’s crackup.
LEM: Have you heard her fan message recently? She’s fine and is currently staring at a really beautiful rainbow.
IVY: Survivor, hello.

Mariah Carey (born 1969), American singer, songwriter, and actress. She rose to fame in 1990 with her self-titled debut album, and was the first artist to have her first five singles reach #1. She initially signed with Columbia, and married one of their executives in 1993 (they separated in 1997 and divorced in 1998).

In July 2001, after parting with Columbia and breaking up with her boyfriend of three years, Carey suffered a physical and mental breakdown. She began posting a series of disturbing messages on her official website, and displayed erratic behaviour on several promotional appearances, such as doing an unscripted striptease on MTV. The messages on her website spoke of being drained and burnt out by the music industry, and needing a break.

Carey was admitted to a hospital in Connecticut for treatment for two weeks, then remained absent from the public for some time. In late August (perhaps 4-6 weeks before the events of this episode), Carey posted an audio message on her website thanking fans for their support during her recovery.

In the message she told her fans, I just want to say thank you so much for all the letters and everything … as I speak to you, I’m looking at the most beautiful rainbow that is going across the entire sky, and I love you much! Thanks. Bye. She took the rainbow as a positive omen, especially as her 1999 album was called Rainbow.

Recently, Mariah Carey has revealed that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the time of hospitalisation, but it took her some time to accept it. It must be said that Gilmore Girls was never particularly sensitive on the subject of mental health issues.

Snow-White and Rose-Red

FRANCIE: Well, no one has proof [the Puffs exist]. It’s just folklore.
IVY: Like Snow-White and Rose-Red.

Snow-White and Rose-Red is a German fairy tale, best known from the version in the collection of the Brothers Grimm. In the story, Snow-White and Rose-Red are two sisters, one blonde and quiet, and the other dark-haired and lively, who live with their widowed mother in a cottage in the woods. The girls love each other and share everything equally.

They make friends with an unusually polite bear, giving him a warm place to spend the winter, and playfully rolling around with him before the fire. Later on, their bear friend saves them from a wicked dwarf, and is revealed to be a prince, put under a curse by the dwarf. It turns out they were rolling around and cuddling a prince in a fur suit the whole time! He marries Snow-White, and just as it looks like the girls really are going to share everything, the prince turns out to have a convenient brother for Rose-Red, and they all live happily ever after (their mother fades out of the story).

It’s one of the more frankly erotic fairy tales, a story of innocence reaching sexual maturity. It’s somehow fitting that a Chilton girl knows of this lesser-known fairy tale, and the name might remind us of Francie’s red hair! (Modern versions of the story often give Rose-Red literal red hair to match Snow-White’s literal fair hair).

Monkey Habitat

FRANCIE: We talked. We find you fascinating.
IVY: Like the monkey habitat.
FRANCIE: So we’ve decided to extend an invite to you. You can eat here any time you like.

The invitation to Rory from the Puffs comes with a major put-down which likens her to a monkey at a zoo. Clever and amusing, but not quite human, not fully one of them. Even when the Puffs accept you, they don’t really accept you …

Waffle From Belgium

RORY: Lorelai Gilmore. Nope, doesn’t sound model-y enough. You need something that stands out more. How about Waffle? We could call you Waffle and say you’re from Belgium?

Rory is referring to the way many models have unusual or exotic-sounding names, sometimes the one they were given at birth, and sometimes self-chosen. (Alexis Bledel began her career as a model, so presumably would know of many examples).

Waffle is from Belgium because they are famous for this foodstuff. American love “Belgian waffles”, which were introduced to North America in 1962, and popularised in 1964 at the New York World’s Fair – a variant of the Brussels waffle, served with strawberries and whipped cream (the Belgian cook who brought them over didn’t think North Americans would recognise Brussels as the name of a Belgian city).

There are several different types of waffle in Belgium, and none of them are called Belgian waffle. They tend to be larger and lighter than Belgian waffles in North America, with larger squares and a deeper grid pattern. Unlike in North America, they are not served as a breakfast food, but more often as a dessert or afternoon snack with coffee. [picture is the American version of Belgian waffles].

Leonardo DiCaprio

LORELAI: Ugh, they totally just snuck that modelling thing in.
RORY: Hmm, my mom’s a model. Maybe you’ll get to date Leonardo DiCaprio now.

Leonardo DiCaprio (born 1974), award-winning actor, producer, and environmentalist, known for taking unusual roles, especially in biopics and period pieces. At this stage, DiCaprio had won critical acclaim for his role in the 1993 quirky coming of age film, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, and become an international star after playing the male lead in the 1997 epic romance, Titanic, which became the highest-grossing film to that point.

In 1999, he began dating Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen (born 1980), a relationship which lasted until 2005; this is what Rory is thinking of [pictured]. It’s another of those celebrity references which have had real staying power, because DiCaprio went on to date a number of other models, and since 2017 has been in a relationship with Argentine-American model Camila Morrone (born 1997).

Kate Moss

LORELAI: Oh, yeah, sure, I’ll be there all day. So, a fashion show, huh? Are we gonna get any famous models?
AVA: Excuse me?
LORELAI: You know, to model the clothes. Any chance I’m finally gonna get to see Kate Moss eat something?

Katherine “Kate” Moss (born 1974) is a British supermodel and businesswoman. She rose to fame in the mid 1990s as part of the grungy heroin chic fashion trend, where models were not only emaciated to the point of androgyny, but also had pale skin, stringy greasy hair, and dark circles under their eyes, as if actually physically ill or drug-ravaged. It was a reaction against the 1980s supermodel trend of models looking healthy and vibrant, like Elle MacPherson.

Kate Moss became a fashion icon through her collaboration with Calvin Klein, famous for her waif-like size zero figure and connections with the British music scene, dating famous musicians and appearing in several music videos. She had allegations of drug use against her which she never denied, although she was later cleared of all charges due to lack of evidence.

She became known for her quote, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”, which she later regretted. Despite Lorelai wondering if Kate Moss will ever eat anything, one of the reasons she became so popular with the media is that she was very thin, yet was often photographed eating junk food, which she claimed to live on. I can’t help wondering if she was one of the inspirations for Lorelai and Rory’s diet!

Although fans sometimes get frustrated with Lorelai and Rory looking so slim despite their supposed huge appetites and junk food diet, in fact they were refreshingly energetic, fit and healthy looking compared to many of the girls and women in the media and on television shows in the 1990s (eg Paris Hilton, Ally McBeal). This was a time when actresses like Alicia Silverstone and Drew Barrymore were considered “fat”. Lorelai and Rory may have been slender, but at least they didn’t starve themselves, or look sick and scrawny.

“My stepdaughter Kimberly …”

AUBREY: How about something more young and fun? You know, my stepdaughter Kimberly…
AVA: Sarah.
AUBREY: Right, Sarah.

Emily once had a cook named Sarah, who she kept calling Mira. Sarah and Mira at least sound somewhat alike – the connection between Sarah and Kimberly is less comprehensible. Sarah seems to be a name nobody can remember in Gilmore Girls.

Aubrey is a conventionally attractive blonde, so in the Gilmore world, that means she is too dim and self-centered to remember her own step-daughter’s name! She also goes on to make a ridiculous suggestion that they hold the fall fundraiser in a hip club for kidults which is in a sandpit.

Chateau Mimsy

MENA: I still say we approach Chateau Mimsy.
AVA: That space is too small, Mena.

A fictional venue, presumably in or around Hartford.

“Mimsy” is a word made up by English writer Lewis Carroll, previously discussed, from his 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, previously discussed.

The word appears in a nonsense poem called Jabberwocky, which Alice reads in a book in the dreamscape of the looking-glass world. It seems unintelligible until she holds it up to a mirror, and can then read it. Even then, the poem is only vaguely understandable, filled with invented words. Jabberwocky is considered to be one of the greatest nonsense poems in the English language – playful and whimsical, with many of its words entering the lexicon.

The first stanza reads:

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Later in the novel, the character of Humpty Dumpty gives Alice an explanation of some of the poem’s vocabulary. His definition of “mimsy” is that it is a cross between “flimsy” and “miserable” – a strong suggestion that Chateau Mimsy is not only too small, but also dingy and cheerless!

There has already been a bed and breakfast named after a Lewis Carroll character – The Cheshire Cat in Portsmouth, where Lorelai and Rory stayed on their road trip. Apparently venues with names from Lewis Carroll are a feature of the Gilmore Girls universe.

Saks

AVA: Aubrey here works at Saks.
AUBREY: Uh, used to work at Saks.

Saks Fifth Avenue is a luxury department store chain which originated in Washington DC in 1827, and is now headquartered in New York. The closest store to Hartford is in Greenwich, Connecticut, about 90 minutes drive away [pictured].

Aubrey is quick to correct the assumption that she is still working after being married for a month, which would imply her husband couldn’t support her financially. Unlike Lorelai, the Booster Club mothers don’t have to work, underlining that it is much more of a sacrifice for Lorelai to participate.

The Philharmonic Committee

MENA: Lorelai Gilmore. So you’re Emily’s daughter?
LORELAI: Oh, yeah. You know my mother?
MENA: Oh, very well. We’re on the Philharmonic committee together. She told me to keep an eye out for you.

A Philharmonic Society is one dedicated to organising concerts of classical music, and the name is reminiscent of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, suggesting the committee is one which supports a symphony orchestra. It could very well be one and the same with the Symphony Fundraising Committee, which Emily sits on with Headmaster Charleston’s wife, Bitty. Either that, or the writers have given Hartford two symphony orchestras, and Emily supports both.

Mena is on the committee with Emily, and they seem to be on good terms. This may have been another thing assisting Lorelai to be so easily accepted by the Booster Club mothers. Emily is very influential – rejecting her daughter would not be a smart thing to do.