Rhine

EMILY: If you pay for first class and the airline sticks you in coach, people expect you to be upset. No one calls you demanding or unreasonable. And yet here is this woman whom I pay more than she can get anywhere else in Hartford, whose severance package could finance a summer cruise down the Rhine, dragging me into court saying that I was unfair.

The Rhine, the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe, at 1230 km (760 miles). It rises in the Swiss Alps, flows predominantly through Germany, and ends in the Netherlands, where it empties into the North Sea. It has been a vital waterway since the days of the Roman Empire, and cities along it include Basel, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Strasbourg, and Rotterdam.

Cruises down the Rhine are expensive, around $5000 per person for even a modest one. As Emily’s maids never seem to last more than about a week, it seems implausible they could have a generous severance package such as she describes.

Emily’s Excuse for Being Demanding

EMILY: For years, I’ve been listening to you and your father and everyone else go on and on about how demanding I am, how I have to have things a certain way. Well, guess what? I pay to have them that way. I pay more than anyone else pays their maids, and when things are not the way I want, that means I’m not getting what I paid for. Why is that so hard to understand?

Emily’s justification for her demanding and unreasonable behaviour is that she pays high wages, higher than anyone else in Hartford. This certainly helps explain how she continues to attract new staff, when she has a terrible reputation.

Munich Beer Hall Rally

EMILY: She was the clomper … She’d be upstairs making the beds and it’d sound like a Munich beer hall rally.

Emily refers to the Beer Hall Putsch, or Munich Putsch, a failed coup d’état by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, and other leaders in the city of Munich in 1923, during the Weimar Republic. Approximately two thousand Nazis marched on the Feldherrnhalle (a monument to honour the Bavarian army), but were confronted by police which resulted in the deaths of 16 Nazi Party members and four police officers.

Hitler was eventually arrested and charged with treason. The putsch (coup) brought Hitler to the attention of the German nation for the first time and generated international headlines. His arrest was followed by a widely publicised trial, which gave him a platform to express his nationalist sentiments to the nation.

Hitler was found guilty of treason and served 9 months in prison, where he wrote Mein Kampf. Once released, Hitler redirected his focus towards obtaining power through legal means rather than by revolution or force, and accordingly changed his tactics, further developing Nazi propaganda.

Emily has combined or conflated this with the Nuremburg rallies, celebratory events coordinated by the Nazi Party. They played a seminal role in propaganda events, conveying a unified Germany under Nazi control.

Emily seems to have the same habit as Lorelai, referring to people she dislikes or who have displeased her as Nazis.

Hamburg

EMILY: Gerta, the one from Hamburg, Germany.

Hamburg, the second-largest city and third-largest port in Germany, with a population of 2.5 million, while the overall urban area has more than 5 million people. Situated on the River Elbe, it was a sovereign city state until the 1871 unification of Germany. The modern city has suffered disasters, including a fire, a flood, and World War II bombing raids, but has bounced back from each one.

Jackbooted

EMILY: Of course I said it. Well, I can’t imagine who would take jackbooted as a compliment.

Jackboot, military and combat boot associated popularly with totalitarianism, as they were worn by German military and paramilitary forces during World War II. However, they have been used officially by other nations as well, including the UK, and had some civilian uses as well.

Cheech & Chong

LORELAI: How’d it finally end with Cheech & Chong?

Cheech & Chong, comedy duo consisting of Richard “Cheech” Marin (born 1946) and Thomas “Tommy” Chong (born 1938). They found commercial and cultural success in the 1970s and 1980s with their stand-up routines, studio recordings, and low-budget feature films, which were based on the hippie and free love era, and especially drug and counterculture movements, most notably their love for cannabis.

Their 1978 buddy stoner comedy film Up in Smoke was poorly reviewed but a huge commercial success, becoming a cult classic and kicking off the entire genre of stoner movies. Their characters are a pair of drug-addled idiots who get into one ridiculous slapstick situation after another, so Lorelai seems to be saying that Jess and Dean are likewise a pair of comedic idiots.

The real Cheech & Chong broke up in the 1980s after an acrimonious falling out and didn’t reunite until 2008 – Lorelai may also be referring to that (not that she knows Cheech & Chong will get back together at this point).

“The student surpasses the master”

LORELAI: Not as impressive as my mother making four green beans last an hour and a half …. When she finally got to the last bean, she cut it in six pieces. I swear, I thought Gran was gonna lunge across the table at her.

RORY: The student surpasses the master.

As far as I know, this comes from a quote attributed to the Renaissance artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci: “Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master”.