Footnotes to the TV series
LORELAI: Hear them [the troubadours] out Taylor. It can’t hurt. (Taylor looks at the bag she’s holding in her hand) These are not fries. They are Fahrvergnügen sugen dugen.
Fahrvergnügen was a 1990 advertising slogan used to sell Volkswagen cars. It is a made up word, taken from the German for “driving enjoyment”.
TROUBADOUR: I’ve been the town troubadour for six months now, and I think I’ve done a pretty good job and then, he shows up (points to other troubadour).
RIVAL TROUBADOUR: Hey.
TROUBADOUR: And there’s no room for a second troubadour in Stars Hollow.
Even though we’ve only seen the Town Troubadour since That Damn Donna Reed, which took place in February, he’s actually been in town since early November at least. We learn that the Troubadour is a real man of mystery, as we don’t know how he supports himself. He doesn’t play music in the streets for money, even refusing it when offered.
Nor do we know where he lives: he is never shown shopping or eating at the diner, and nobody seems to know anything about him, so he isn’t a regular part of the town. On the other hand, we never see him driving, cycling, catching a bus, or even walking home, so we don’t know where he goes when he finishes playing music in Stars Hollow. This is all part of the “mystique” that he believes troubadours are meant to have.
Is he even human? Is he an angel, or a spirit from the stars, sent to bring music to Stars Hollow? Is he from another dimension, or the real Grant Lee Phillips able to project himself somehow into the Gilmore Girls universe? These questions will never be answered.
His role seems to be to guide people’s lives through song, and to help them learn to express emotions – all part of Stars Hollow being a place where love can be nurtured and developed. Later in the scene, Rory stands up and says that the Troubadour is able to express how the townspeople feel through his songs, and to say what they are thinking. This certainly seems to be case in this episode.
(Interestingly, the Troubadour only seems to have come to Stars Hollow when Rory had begun dating Dean, and Lorelai had begun dating Max. Did their love affairs attract him to the town, as if they now needed his emotional guidance?)
TAYLOR: Lorelai, I hope that’s not food in those bags. Food is not allowed at town meetings.
LORELAI: No, Taylor its not. Its, um, diapers for the little ones.
TAYLOR: What?
LORELAI: Dorsal fins and Cucamonga.
TAYLOR: What did she say?
LORELAI (whispers to Max): I confuse him till he loses his train of thought and then he moves on.
The Cucamonga Valley is a region of southern California located between Los Angeles and San Bernardino. It is a major wine-producing area, and one of its cities is Rancho Cucamonga. The name Cucamonga comes from a Native American word meaning “sandy place”.
(A dorsal fin is the fin on the back of fish, whales, dolphins, and porpoises.)
MAX: Oh, oh, I forgot. (Max pulls two Ring Pops out of the bag) One for you, and one for you.
RORY: What are these?
MAX: Those are rings. And the diamond is actually candy, so you can eat it.
Ring Pops are fruit-flavoured lollipops sold as a large plastic wearable ring with a candy “gemstone” that can be sucked. Manufactured by Topps, they were invented by Frank Richards in 1979.
LORELAI: Are you sure you wanna go to this thing?
MAX: You’ve been talking about these town meetings for months. I’ve got to see one for myself.
With Max attending a town meeting in Stars Hollow with Lorelai and Rory, you can see that he is trying to adapt to her world, and become a member of her family. We know this was his idea, because he says that he felt that he had to attend a meeting since Lorelai talked about them all the time. Lorelai appears rather reluctant, as if she is not sure about having Max become part of her everyday life so quickly.
Town meetings seem to be held on the second Thursday of the month, so this could be Thursday 10 May.
(Lorelai, Rory, and Max are walking down the street. Lorelai and Max are carrying small grocery bags.)
MAX: Okay, we’ve got food, drink, reading material, chocolate covered espresso beans.
Chocolate-covered espresso beans are coffee beans covered in chocolate. They are candy made for the Gilmore girls, who love both sugar and caffeine. A serving of 40 g (about a handful) contains the same amount of caffeine as three cups of coffee.
In actuality, there are no such things as “espresso beans” – espresso is made from the same coffee plants as any other coffee.
RORY: What’s your name?
CLARA: Clara.
Clara (Scout Taylor-Compton) is Dean’s younger sister. Dean earlier alluded to having “sisters”, and Clara is one of them, although we never directly hear of any other. She seems to be around eight or nine years old, since she is still in the Brownies.
It is very strange that Rory has apparently never been to Dean’s house before, or met his family, even though they live in a small town and dated for several months. It’s even odder because Dean knows her mother very well, and visits her house often.
It makes her look like a detached and rather selfish girlfriend, that she expects Dean to always come to her, and to fit in with her life, rather than both of them making an effort. Or perhaps Dean has rather weirdly kept her away from his family, in which case she seems to have passively accepted it rather than argued against it.
Notice that the Forester’s front door has a friendly “Welcome” sign on the front door decorated with a red rose – a sure sign that Dean would welcome Rory’s visit, and her love, if only she knew.
CLARA: Where’s your [Girl Scout] uniform?
RORY: Oh, we’re not doing uniforms anymore. You know, we’re trying to blend in, relate better to the average person. It was a very successful strategy for the Hare Krishnas, so …
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness is a Hindu religious organisation, often called “Hare Krishnas”. It was founded in New York City in 1966 by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is worshipped by his followers as a guru and spiritual master. They worship Krishna as the highest expression of godhead, and promote yoga and a vegetarian diet.
Members of the organisation traditionally dressed in saffron robes, so that they were sometimes called “Orange People”. These days, they have integrated into the community, and often dress in normal clothes, just as many of their beliefs have become mainstream.
Girl Scout uniforms have changed throughout the years, and Rory’s statement has almost come true, as these days Girl Scouts wear casual pants and polo shirts, with a waistcoat or over-shirt to display badges on.
CLARA: Are you here to see my brother?
RORY: Oh, no. No. Not at all. I’m, um, with … the Girl Scouts.
CLARA: I’m gonna be a Girl Scout someday. I’m a Brownie now.
The Girl Scouts are the equivalent of the Girl Guides, and a sister organisation to the Boy Scouts. Formed in 1928, they have over 10 million members in 145 countries. The Brownies are for girls aged 7 to 10. They are the youngest stream in the Girl Scouts.
In real life, there are Girl Scout troops all over Connecticut, including in the Wallingford area, where Stars Hollow appears to be located.
LORELAI: And you just need to give this situation [with Rachel] a fair chance.
LUKE: I know.
LORELAI: And that starts with ceasing work on the Winchester Mystery House here.
The Winchester Mystery House is a mansion in San Jose, California that was built as the home of Sarah Winchester, the wealthy widow of the firearm magnate William Wirt Winchester, the treasurer of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.
Constructed between 1884 and Sarah’s death in 1922, the house is rumoured to be haunted by the ghosts of all those killed by Winchester rifles, with tabloids of the day claiming that Sarah intended the house to be used as a refuge for their restless spirits (although other rumours said that she tried to ward off their spirits by building the house). Her biographer finds no evidence to support either claim.
Built without an architect, the house is very large and has many oddities, such as stairs that lead nowhere, and windows overlooking other rooms of the house. Some of the more bizarre curiosities may have been added after Sarah’s death to make the house seem more eccentric, while others may be due to the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. The Winchester Mystery House is privately owned, and operates as a tourist attraction.
Lorelai connects the lengthy and haphazard building of the Winchester Mystery House to the work that Luke is doing on her home.
Sarah Winchester was originally from New Haven, Connecticut, so this reference links the state that Gilmore Girls is set in with the state that it is filmed in.
Amusingly, Jared Padalecki, who played Dean Forester in Gilmore Girls, later went on to play Sam Winchester in Supernatural, with his surname chosen in honour of the Winchester Mystery House. Sam’s brother is named Dean – their first names are a nod to Sal and Dean from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, previously mentioned.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 