Footnotes to the TV series
CHIEF BAKER: [into a walkie talkie] We’ve got the first engine laddering the roof, first engine. Yeah, and we need PD for traffic control.
PD stands for Police Department. In real life, there is a State Police Station in Litchfield, which is said to be very close to Stars Hollow.
We’re now in the second part of the episode title, which promises fire as well as Poes.
KIRK: Say, how can I have a career as a Poe?
POE 2: It’s not a career, this is just an event that we do. I write technical manuals for a living.
Technical manual, also known as an instruction manual or instruction book, user guide, user manual, or how-to guide. The book of instructions which comes with a product, service, or application.
LUKE: He [Jess] must be pulling double shifts on the weekends. It’s all I can think of.
LORELAI: No, he’s pretty much duding it with Rory on the weekends.
Duding it, or duding it up, American slang with the vague meaning of doing something in a very cool young male way.
LORELAI: So, how was Jess’ Employee of the Month thing? …
LUKE: There was punch.
The term punch refers to a wide assortment of drinks, both non-alcoholic and alcoholic, generally containing fruits or fruit juice. The drink was introduced from the Indian subcontinent to England in the 17th century. Punch is usually served at parties in large, wide bowls, known as punch bowls. Historically it was made with alcohol, such as rum, but punch for children is usually a mix of fruit juice and soda.
For reasons which escape me, commercially sold punch in the US cannot contain fruit or fruit juice, even if it is actually sold as “fruit punch”. It is a mystery to me what this “fruit punch” actually consists of.
LORELAI: No, you go on ahead, I’ll catch up.
RORY: Okay. Try and make it home in time for Charlie Rose. Billy Joel’s on, and he might cry or something.
Charlie Rose, previously discussed. Billy Joel, previously discussed.
In real life, Billy Joel did not appear on Charlie Rose in 2003. He has been a guest on the show several times, and the one previous to the episode was in October 2001.
Lorelai suggests that Billy Joel “might cry or something” because he suffers from severe depression, and attempted suicide in 1970. In 2002, the year before this episode of Gilmore Girls, he entered a rehab centre and psychiatric hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut for treatment. This show is very insensitive about mental health issues.
Charlie Rose was on Wednesday nights at this time, letting us know the day of the week.
DEAN: I got into Southern Connecticut State.
RORY: Oh, that’s great.
Southern Connecticut State, previously discussed.
Dean applied to the university in New Haven, seemingly as a way to impress Rory. Nothing ever seem to come of this, and the fact that Lindsay doesn’t say anything about going to college may provide a clue as to why.
KIRK: It was an inspiration. But they’re not selling much better than the “Babette ate oatmeal” shirts.
LORELAI: Keep the dream, Kirk.
“Keep the dream alive” is a common motivational phrase, often used in reference to Martin Luther King and his inspirational “I had a dream” speech.
LORELAI: [reads] “Faux Poes foes.”
RORY: Very clever, Kirk.
KIRK: It was an inspiration. But they’re not selling much better than the “Babette ate oatmeal” shirts.
In North American English, “oatmeal” is used to mean “porridge” – rolled oats boiled in water, usually eaten for breakfast.
[Kirk holds a tee shirt up]
LORELAI: [reads] “Faux Poes foes.”
Faux is French for “false”. It is often used in English, to mean “artificial, imitation”, such as “faux pearls”. It is a homonym of the English word “foe”.
POE 1: I’m sure it was ’32. I’m sad to say it was the same year my older brother William passed away.
POE 2: Okay, that’s not right either, Fred.
Edgar Allen Poe had an older brother named William Henry Leonard Poe, born in 1807. He went by his middle name, Henry. Henry Poe died in 1831, a few months after Edgar Allan Poe left West Point.
The first Poe has once again got things muddled.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 