Footnotes to the TV series
KIRK: Today we have … various marzipan fruits made by a sect of cloistered nuns in Toledo.
Toledo is a city of around 80 000 people in central Spain on the Tagus River, known as the “City of Three Cultures”, for the influences of Christians, Jews and Muslims on its history. There are several convents of cloistered nuns in the city, and many of them do indeed specialise in making sweets such as marzipan.
KIRK: Today we have an almond torte, an apple pandowdy, and various marzipan fruits made by a sect of cloistered nuns in Toledo.
Almond torte: an almond cake, rich and sweet, which may be simple or multilayered.
Apple pandowdy [pictured]: pandowdy is a New England term for something similar to cobbler, a pudding which has a fruit filling covered with a batter or biscuit topping before being baked. A classic pandowdy is covered in little scraps of pastry and cooked in a skillet, hence “pan dowdy”. Pandowdy sometimes has a crust on the bottom as well, so that it resembles a deep dish pie.
Marzipan: a confection consisting primarily of sugar, honey, and almond meal (ground almonds), sometimes augmented with almond oil or extract. It is often made into sweets; common uses are chocolate-covered marzipan and small marzipan imitations of fruits and vegetables. Marzipan is mentioned several times in Gilmore Girls as something of a strange, European novelty food.
Note that Weston’s has thirty different types of pie, and thirty-two flavours of ice cream.
DEAN: Hey, you wanna get a cup of coffee? … Maybe talk a little? Of course, if you prefer, we can both just head over to Weston’s and randomly bump into each other.
RORY: No, uh, that’s okay. I can get coffee.
While Rory is browsing in the window of Stars Hollow Books, she runs into Dean. Apparently, they have been “randomly” bumping into each other for some time now. And if you believe that, then I’ve got a mighty nice bridge for sale!
The upshot of all this creepy stalking (I mean innocent random encounters) is that Dean asks Rory to have coffee with him at Weston’s Bakery – Luke’s Diner being out of the question for obvious reasons.
RORY: Chuck Berry live at The Fillmore on vinyl.
LORELAI: Oh my God, that’s perfect. He loves Chuck Berry. How did you come up with that?
RORY: I called him and asked him what he wanted.
Live at the Fillmore Auditorium, a 1967 live album by Chuck Berry recorded at The Fillmore, a historic music venue in San Francisco. During the 1960s, it was a focal point for psychedelic music and the counterculture in general, mentioned in Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The Steve Miller Blues Band (later the Steve Miller Band) were one of its regular acts, and they provide the backing music for this album.
LORELAI: It’s a tie for my father’s birthday.
LUKE: What, no Aramis this year?
Aramis, luxury fragrance brand introduced by US cosmetics company Estée Lauder in 1964. It was the first prestige men’s fragrance widely available in department stores, and is now sold in 120 countries. Aramis was created by perfumer Bernard Chant.
RORY: He’ll like whatever you get him.
LORELAI: If I slip him a Quaalude, he’ll like whatever I get him.
Quaalude is the old brand name in the US for the sedative Methaqualone; Quaalude is a portmanteau word combining “quiet interlude”. It was so readily available in the US that it was handed out at semi-legal “stress clinics” in the 1970s and ’80s. The drug was discontinued in the US in 1985 due to concerns about recreational abuse of the drug, which gave it a very bad reputation.
RORY: Come on, let’s go to the carnival.
JESS: I don’t go to these stupid town things. [puts an arm around her]
RORY: You went to the Bid-A-Basket festival. You went to the dance marathon.
JESS: That was when I was trying to get you. I now have you. That means I don’t have to go anymore.
Well, here’s a chance to do something together besides kissing: Rory asks Jess to attend the Winter Carnival with her. However, it turns out he is quite resistant to the idea, saying that he doesn’t go to “stupid town things”.
When Rory points out that he went to the Bid-on-a-Basket festival and the dance marathon, he says: “That was when I was trying to get you. I now have you”. It’s honest and blunt, but also rather chilling. It makes it sound as if Jess was never really interested in Rory, except as a prize to be won. And being told only two months into a relationship that the other person no longer feels like they have to make an effort for you is pretty harsh.
Jess hasn’t had the best relationship models, so you can understand why he might not be the most romantic boyfriend in the world, but this can’t be what Rory was hoping to hear.
[Jess and Rory are walking through the town square, kissing]
It’s about two months since Rory broke up with Dean, and by now she is comfortable enough to be seen kissing her boyfriend Jess in public. It feels as if the relationship between Rory and Jess is nothing but kissing, actually. Do they do anything else?
When they were friends, they read books and talked about books and went book shopping – whatever happened to that? Is it happening offscreen, or are we meant to think that now they’re in a relationship, Rory and Jess don’t bother any more?
LORELAI: Not weirded out, even a little?
RORY: Why would I be weirded out?
LORELAI: Well, Dean coming over, bringing your stuff back.
RORY: No, I’m fine.
LORELAI: Okay. Although, you know, if you were weirded out a little, it would be okay. It wouldn’t mean that you don’t like Jess, or that you made a mistake. It would just mean the guy who was in your life for two years isn’t there anymore.
Dean drops off his “Rory box” of mementos, in order to return them to Rory. Although Rory brushes off Lorelai’s concerns that she might feel “weird” about it, when she takes the box to her room, she seems unable to open it and deal with the contents. She sits on the bed and eyes it with an unhappy, regretful (remorseful?), expression.
Note how Lorelai doesn’t miss a chance to mention not liking Jess, or making a mistake, even while trying to comfort Rory. We never see Rory return her “Dean box” to Dean – but then again, Lorelai told her that such memory boxes were to be kept as a lifetime reminder of a previous relationship.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 