Big Rig, Bennies and Goofballs

EMILY: There was something with a big rig. Oh, those things, they scare the life out of me. And apparently, all the men who drive them are hopped up on bennies and goofballs.

Big rig, informal English for a large truck, an 18-wheeler – otherwise known as a semi-trailer truck, a semi-trailer, a semi-truck, or just a semi.

Bennies, slang for the drug Benzedrine, an amphetamine used recreationally since the 1920s.

Goofballs, slang for tranquilisers or sleeping pills, used as a recreational drug. Note that you can’t really get “hopped up” on sleeping pills, and taking them alongside amphetamines seems counterproductive, suggesting that Emily’s knowledge of the drug scene is limited. I think this is her attempt to seem cool and hip in front of Jess.

Jess Has a Black Eye

When Jess finally gets there (he really did get stuck in traffic) he has a black eye, and refuses to say how it happened. Emily only expresses polite concern, and is otherwise perfectly charming to him.

Rory however, absolutely flips. She is convinced that Jess has got into a fight with Dean, because the two of them talked together at Miss Patty’s. This is very unfair of Rory to make such an assumption, when Jess already told her he wasn’t upset about her talking to Dean – only bothered that he had to find it out from town gossip. But she is so angry with Jess for turning up to Emily’s dinner, late and with a black eye, that she is is no mood to be fair.

Jess is Late

Rory arrives at her grandmother’s house after school – she seems to have brought a change of clothes with her, as she is not in her uniform. Jess is late to get there, but Emily, ever the gracious hostess, says that Jess probably got into bad traffic on Interstate 84, and professes to find it refreshing that Jess doesn’t have a cell phone, and thus can’t be contacted or call them.

It is Rory who is upset and embarrassed over Jess’ tardiness. You can tell she was hoping Jess would make a good impression on her rather snooty grandmother, which seems extremely unlikely.

On Ramp

RORY: And what are you worried about happening?
LORELAI: Well, what you guys were on the on-ramp for up at Luke’s the other day. Your basic boy/girl stuff. Especially with this new boy, you girl stuff.
RORY: Well, the boy is different, but I’m still me. That hasn’t changed.

On ramp, the short section of road which allows a driver to enter the highway. Lorelai has taken one look at Jess and Rory making out, and seen that as a short step to the highway of sexual intercourse.

She tries to give Rory the “cool mom” version of the sex talk, but Rory says she is too busy to be even thinking about sex, and says that if she were thinking about it, she would talk about it with Lorelai first.

Lorelai has to be content with that, even though she’s clearly not happy at the idea of leaving Rory alone in the house overnight. She never worried about it when Rory was with Dean, even though Dean made some overtures, and did come over even after being explicitly told not to by Rory.

Rory claims she tells her mother “everything”, but in fact she keeps an awful lot of her personal life close to her chest. As a result, Lorelai never realises that Dean was not the knight in shining armour she seems to think he is.

Orcs

LORELAI: But if you can’t get a hold of him, it might be safer to plan on staying at Mom’s. I mean, if you run out of gas, you’re stuck. And at the mercy of the Orcs.

A race of humanoid monsters which feature in the Lord of the Rings films, previously discussed as favourite movies of Lorelai and Rory. Brutish, ugly, and malevolent, Lorelai seems to be using them as a symbol of all the bad things that could happen to Rory.

Paulie, Bada Bing

RORY: What’s he wearing, a jogging suit?
LORELAI: Yeah, and then after, he and Paulie are hitting The Bada Bing.

A reference to the TV show The Sopranos, previously discussed as one of Lorelai’s favourites. Peter Paul “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri is one of Tony Soprano’s henchman, and The Bada Bing is a strip club and key location in the show. Paulie was very fond of wearing jogging suits, in particular, a black velvet one.

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.