Footnotes to the TV series
MRS. KIM: Try the tofurkey. Turkey made from tofu.
Tofurkey is a vegan meat substitute made from tofu and wheat protein, made into a loaf, filled with stuffing and flavoured with herbs and spices. As a brand name, Tofurky is made by Turtle Island Foods in Hood River, Oregon. It is stuffed with mushrooms and wild rice, and has been available since 1995.
LORELAI: Young-Kwan, good to see you. Hee-Jin, hi. Oh, I love your hair. Su-Nam, hi. Hi. Ho-Kyung, Won-Kyu, great to see you, hi.
Young-Kwan – a male name meaning “brave and strong”. In A Year in the Life, one of Lane’s sons is named Kwan, so it is possibly a family name.
Hee-Jin – a female name meaning “precious pearl”.
Su-Nam – a male name which can be translated as “man of a long lifespan”. Lane said she had a cousin called “Nam”, I am not sure if this is the same person or not.
Ho-Kyung – a unisex (?) name which can be translated in several ways, including “bright and respectful”.
Won-Kyu – a unisex (?) name which can be translated as “first and standard”. I have only ever seen it the other way around, Kyu-Won, when it is usually male.
Notice how familiar Lorelai and Rory are with the Kim relatives, knowing their names, and comfortable enough to make polite small talk. They look genuinely happy to see Lorelai and Rory. Although we rarely see it, the Gilmore girls must often attend family gatherings at the Kim household.
The Kim family members are played by Peter Kim, Jennifer Bolton Lee, Janet Song, Kim Kim, Alexis Rhee, Greg Joung Paik, Jae Woo Lee, Sunny Bonner, John D. Kim, and April Moon. None were very experienced at this point, but Rhee and Song have gone on to have long careers, appearing in some well-known and popular productions.
Note: I know nothing about Korean names, so feel free to rip this apart!
LANE: That is not Dave Rygalski … I mean, not the one that I’m in a band with. That is Dave Rygalski, local Christian guitar player that my mom and I met very briefly and innocently at the dance marathon, and that I coincidentally ran across again when I found his ad seeking Christian guitar accompaniment gigs up on our church bulletin board.
Lorelai and Rory notice that Dave is playing guitar at the Kim’s Thanksgiving dinner. Lane quickly explains that she has set up another zany scheme, whereby Dave came all the way to Stars Hollow at five in the morning in order to have a five minute conversation with Mrs Kim and eat faux egg sandwiches. Lane then put a fake ad up for Dave on their church bulletin board, and pretended to find it in front of her mother.
This is the kind of thing Henry couldn’t put up with (and who could blame him?), but Dave willingly goes along with it, in the faint hope that Mrs Kim might let them date some day. He obviously really likes Lane.
LORELAI: I hate hiding from people, especially when I don’t wanna hide from them. You were a pal. You were so good to Rory. You were the best first boyfriend a mother could’ve hoped for … It’s okay to keep avoiding me if you want. I just wanted you to know that you don’t need to, okay? Just because you and Rory broke up doesn’t mean we did.
More inappropriate comments from Lorelai to Dean. If Lorelai and Dean “don’t need to break up”, what is it exactly they are not breaking up from? Because if their relationship was Mother of Rory and Rory’s Boyfriend, then yeah, it is going to break up when Rory and Dean do. Otherwise, Lorelai is suggesting that their relationship was something more than this.
It really feels as if Lorelai is trying to keep Dean hanging around for Rory, in hopes that they will get back together. A pretty terrible thing to do to Rory, and certainly unkind to Dean.
LORELAI: So you pulled the Thanksgiving shift, huh?
DEAN: Yeah, I get time and a half.
When doing overtime, time and a half means that the employee will be receiving an extra 50% of their income on top of their usual pay. It is common when working hours outside the usual forty-hour week, such as holidays.
LORELAI: Well, here’s hoping your cat exposes itself to you soon.
KIRK: From your mouth to God’s ears.
From your mouth to God’s ears is an idiomatic Yiddish saying, indicating that the speaker wishes whatever has been to come true. Although similar such proverbs can be found in the Bible, the expression only seems to exist in Jewish/Yiddish literature from the middle of the 19th century. The saying is also common in Arabic, and this is possibly its origin.
Kirk’s new cat, also named Kirk, is predictably very quirky, needing an announcement before anyone enters the room it is in, and disliking having a food bowl placed in front of it. It attacks savagely if anyone annoys them.
The show really liked featuring quirky pets. In a future season, Lorelai herself will get a very quirky dog.
KIRK: Oh, nothing, just a little scratch.
LORELAI: Looks like a big scratch. Wow, Bactine, Neosporin, Mercurochrome – what’s with all the pharmacologicals?
Bactine: an antiseptic treatment containing lidocaine anaesthetic, first marketed in 1950.
Neosporin: broad spectrum antibiotic cream containing anaesthetic, approved for use in the US in 1971.
Mercurochrome: a topical antiseptic with a dye which stains the wound bright red. First developed in 1918, its distribution in the US was halted in 1998, due to concerns about it containing mercury. Somehow it is still available for sale in Stars Hollow in 2002! It is now manufactured in the US without any mercury.
RORY: This will get better over time, I promise. But until then, let’s just play it cool.
JESS: Hey, I’m Frank at the Sands.
Frank Sinatra was a regular performer at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, with his first performance there in 1953 – he later bought a share in the hotel. There is a 1966 live album of one of his performances called Sinatra at the Sands, which includes many of the biggest hits and a comedy monologue. The album was reissued in 1998, and Jess may have bought it.
Lane is also a fan of Frank Sinatra, and this seems like another thing she and have in common that could bring them together, but somehow the two never become friends.
RORY: I promise, we can kiss secretly.
JESS: Yeah, or we can wear Three Stooges masks all the time, that way no one will know who we are.
RORY: I can be Curly.
JESS: I’ll be Moe.
The Three Stooges was an American vaudeville comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short films. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Although six actors played the Three Stooges, the classic line up was Moe Howard (played by Moses Horwitz), Larry Fine (played by Louis Feinberg), and Curly Howard (played by Jerome Horwitz). Their peak popularity was from 1934 to 1946, but television syndication made them one of the most popular comedy acts of the early 1960s.
Rory was proud to be seen with Dean, and kiss him in public. Now her relationship with Jess begins with her hiding their relationship away as if it is something shameful. It doesn’t feel as if the relationship is getting off to a very healthy start.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 