Proust

LORELAI: (turns around to look at Max’s books) Wow these are beautiful! Hmm, I never read Proust, I always wanted to.

Marcel Proust (1871-1922) was a French author, best known for his monumental seven-volume part-autobiographical novel, À la recherche du temps perdu (“In Search of Lost Time”, earlier translated as “Remembrance of Things Past”), published between 1913 and 1927. He is considered to be one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century.

In a television series where the flow of time is a major theme, it’s not surprising that Proust makes a significant appearance, as his novel is a philosophical meditation on the nature of time, and how “clock” time can be very different to our personal experience of time.

Ossobuco

This is the meal that Max makes for Lorelai when she spends the evening at his apartment. It is a traditional Italian dish, originating from Milan, and consists of veal shanks braised with vegetables, white wine, and broth. Its name translates as “bone with a hole”, referring to the marrow hole in the centre of the shank.

Max learned the recipe from a former girlfriend, possibly one of Italian heritage. For some reason he is shy about telling Lorelai this, even though he already told her about a serious relationship he had two episodes back.

This Old House

MAX: And yet, as soon as that dinner’s over and I start cleaning up, suddenly that’s when you’re starving.
LORELAI: What can I say – watching someone work makes me hungry. If I hadn’t stopped watching This Old House I’d be five hundred pounds right now.

This Old House is a highly popular home improvement television show which has aired since 1979, and is broadcast from Stamford, Connecticut. Presumably Lorelai started watching it after she bought a house of her own in Stars Hollow so she could learn how to do home repairs; she probably stopped watching it once she realised she could get Luke to do everything for her.

We last saw Max having his first date with Lorelai in Love and War and Snow. We only just now discover that they been dating happily ever since and are still together.

Damien

LORELAI: Look, I know it [her treatment of Skippy] was bad, but this was a vicious hamster. This was like a Damien hamster with little beady eyes and a big forked tail and … a cape with a … hood …

Lorelai is referring to the 1976 horror film The Omen, directed by Richard Donner. It is about a little boy named Damien (Harvey Spencer Stephens) who appears to be the Antichrist, and around whom numerous unexplained tragedies take place. The Omen was the #5 movie of 1976 and received excellent reviews; it also gained an Academy Award for its score. Today it is recognised as a horror classic.

Interestingly, Rottweiler dogs feature in the film as a mysteriously evil force. Buttercup is part-Rottweiler, suggesting that, like Skippy, she may have ended up being another “bad pet” that Lorelai would have had to abandon if Lorelai had adopted her.

Skippy the Hamster

Lorelai’s mistreatment of Rory’s childhood pet hamster is Rory’s reason to not allow her to get a dog, a nice reversal of the usual parent-child relationship.

It’s interesting that Rory says that Lorelai doesn’t need a dog as she has her, suggesting that Rory sees herself as more of a pet than a daughter. It is only when Lorelai no longer has Rory that she gets a dog – although she treats it more like her child than her pet.

It is not known when Rory might have had a pet hamster. They didn’t get their own house until Rory was eleven, suggesting it might have been after that. However, by that stage Rory should have been old enough to care for her own hamster, so that Lorelai wouldn’t need to do anything. If Rory had a hamster during the mysterious “lost years” between perhaps four and ten, we don’t know what circumstances Lorelai and Rory lived in, but whatever it was, it apparently allowed pets.

“The doggy version of you”

RORY (reading from card): “Buttercup is a special dog. She’s extremely skittish and tends to react badly towards blonde haired females, brunet males, children of either sex, other animals, red clothing, cabbage, or anyone in a uniform.”
LORELAI: (to Luke) Hey, we just found the doggy version of you.

Naturally Lorelai would be attracted to a dog version of Luke – who is of course doggedly loyal to Lorelai.

The dog Lorelai eventually gets is even more neurotic and weird than Buttercup.

Bouvier des Flandres

The dog Buttercup is an interesting mixture of Cocker Spaniel, Golden Retriever, Rottweiler, and Bouvier des Flandres. (The actual dog does not resemble this description very closely).

Bouvier des Flandres is a large woolly herding dog breed from Belgium; its name means “cowherd of Flanders” in French. President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy owned a dog of this breed named Lucky.

Pet Fair

Lorelai and Rory spontaneously decide to check out a pet fair which is being held in the town square. From the signs, we can see it is sponsored by Petfinder.com, the largest pet adoption website in North America, founded in 1996. They hold frequent pet fairs in states all over America, linking with towns and cities that have rescue shelters – from this we know that Stars Hollow must have its own rescue shelter.

Lorelai longs to get a dog, a wish which comes true several seasons later.