McDonald’s

PARIS: A D however, that would be cause for concern.
LOUISE: A cry for help.
PARIS: A job application at McDonald’s.
LOUISE: Would you like fries with that?

McDonald’s is a global-dominating chain of hamburger and fast food restaurants first founded by Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1940. It was franchised by Ray Kroc in 1955, and he later bought the business from the McDonald brothers, bringing in the aggressive business tactics the company is know for today.

“Would you like fries with that?” is a question commonly asked by McDonald’s employees, in an attempt to further boost sales. The phrase is often used to mock McDonald’s and their workers. At Chilton, working in the fast food industry is clearly a fate worse than death.

“To err is human”

MAX: Look at the large red circles around various parts of your paper as friendly reminders that to err is human. And that here at Chilton we try to beat that humanity right outta ya!

Max is referring to the quote “to err is human; to forgive, divine”. It comes from the 1711 poem An Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope (1688-1744).

Max indicates humorously that there will be no forgiveness for errors at Chilton.

Mr. Medina

When the scene changes to Rory’s English Literature class, the teacher is now Mr. Max Medina (Scott Cohen). However, when Rory first started at Chilton two episodes ago, her English Literature teacher was Mr. Remmy (John Billingsley).

There is no attempt made to explain this away, such as Mr. Remmy suddenly leaving and Mr. Medina taking his place, or Mr. Remmy having filled in temporarily while Mr. Medina is sick (Mr. Medina says they’ve been studying Shakespeare for the past three weeks). It is just retconned as Mr. Medina having always been the English Literature teacher and Mr. Remmy never existing.

You can try to explain it as Mr. Remmy being the English teacher and Mr. Medina taking the English Literature class, except that if you add up all Rory’s subjects that she takes in her first semester, that would give her too many classes to attend. It also doesn’t quite gel with Rory being behind in her reading for Mr. Remmy’s class, and then getting a D in Mr. Medina’s class because she was behind in her reading.

The decision seems to have been made to match Lorelai up with Rory’s teacher, and Mr. Remmy wasn’t going to cut it as a love interest, thus entering Mr. Max Medina. The best-selling novel The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot had just been released in October 2000, which featured a teenage girl living with her single mother, and the mother began a relationship with the heroine’s Algebra teacher. Either this was an influence on Gilmore Girls, or it’s an example of zeitgeist.

Actor Scott Cohen does have some experience at the front of a school classroom: in his twenties he spent some time as a substitute teacher, teaching music to kindergarten children at an elementary school in Queens, New York. He was offered a permanent position, but had to turn them down so he could concentrate on his acting career. He and Lauren Graham, who plays Lorelai, were already friends before they starred in Gilmore Girls as a couple.

Intervention

LORELAI: We’re going to stage an intervention with the neon post-its and make them give up their wacky crazy ways.

An intervention is an attempt made to confront someone with an addiction or other serious personal problem by a group of concerned people, usually family and friends. Interventions are designed to persuade the addict to seek treatment or other professional help for their problems.

Lithium

LORELAI: Now these erasers are on lithium so they may seem cheerful but we actually caught them trying to shove themselves in the pencil sharpener earlier.

Lithium (Li) is a chemical element; the lightest metal and the lightest solid element. Lithium salts are used as a psychiatric medication to treat major depressive disorders and bipolar disorders; it is not understood how they work to stabilise mood, but they reduce the incidence of suicide.

“Chicken or the egg?”

LORELAI: You need three highlighters?
RORY: Yes … One dries up, one gets lost, I have one left.
LORELAI: You have really thought this out.
RORY: Yes, I have.
LORELAI: What came first – the chicken or the egg?

The chicken or the egg is an ancient dilemma, whereby it isn’t clear which event occurred first, since chickens lay eggs, but the first chicken would need to come from an egg. Philosophers grappled with the problem for centuries, beginning with the ancient Greeks.

Evolutionary science tells us that the egg came first. Hard shelled eggs first appeared 312 million years ago, while the ancestors of the modern chicken arose perhaps 8000 years ago. Even the first chicken egg would have come before the chicken – laid by a creature that wasn’t a chicken.

Lorelai is jokingly saying that since Rory is so smart, she must be able to solve this ancient riddle.

Legal pad

RORY: I need legal pads.

A legal pad is a notebook of lined paper with gum binding at the top. To be classified as a legal pad, it must have a margin of 3.17 cm from the edge on the left hand side, in which comments can be written. Legal pads are commonly made from yellow paper with blue ruled lines, although as Lorelai soon finds, they come in other colours as well.

The Deer Hunters

The episode’s title refers to the 1978 drama film The Deer Hunter, directed by Michael Cimino. The film is about a group of three friends, Russian-American steelworkers, and how their lives are changed forever by the Vietnam War. The Deer Hunter was the #9 movie of 1978, and won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. It is notable as the first film which Meryl Streep received a nomination for, as she is the most-nominated actor at the Oscars.

Mencken’s Memoirs

RICHARD: Rory, I have a surprise. Not only did I find that copy of Mencken’s Chrestomathy we discussed, I also found a first edition of his memoirs as well.

H.L. Mencken wrote three volumes of memoirs. They were Happy Days, 1880-1892 (1940); Newspaper Days, 1899-1906 (1941); and Heathen Days, 1890-1936 (1943). They were published together in a single volume called The Days of H.L. Mencken in 1947; a good quality first edition might go for around $70 today.

The episode ends with Lorelai in the situation she feared: left alone while Rory spends time with her grandparents and gets “spoiled” with a first edition of a book she has wanted. Of course, Lorelai has had Rory all to herself for many years before this.