Nantucket

EMILY: And what do you intend to do with that paper clip?
LORELAI: I intend to carve something really dirty into the bathroom door … What rhymes with Nantucket?

Nantucket, an island about 30 miles from Cape Cod in Massachusetts; the main town on the island is also called Nantucket. European settlement on the island began in the 17th century, and it was a major centre for the whaling industry by the 19th century – it features in Herman Melville’s novel, Moby Dick. Since the 1950s, it has been an upmarket summer colony and popular tourist destination.

The island features in a famous limerick which begins, “There once was a man from Nantucket …”. The original, written in 1902, is:

There once was a man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man
And as for the bucket, Nantucket (“Nan took it”).

It spawned numerous sequels, many of them vulgar in nature, because the island’s name rhymes with “fuck it” and “suck it”. The earliest such example was published in 1927. It is a staple of American humour, with the name itself enough for listeners to understand the allusion, as in this scene.

George Michael

EMILY: What can we do in a bathroom?

LORELAI: Meet George Michael.

George Michael, born Georgios Panayiotou (1963-2016), English singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is considered one of the leading icons of the MTV generation, and a leading creative force in music production, songwriting, vocal performance, and visual presentation.

George Michael rose to fame as one half of the music duo Wham! Their first two albums, Fantastic (1983), and Make it Big (1984), went to #1 in the UK and the US, and their biggest hit singles include “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”, and “Last Christmas”.

George Michael’s first solo single was “Careless Whisper”, which was released on Make it Big, and went to #1 globally. His debut solo album Faith was released in 1987, going to #1 around the world, and producing four #1 hit singles. He was the best-selling musical artist of 1988, and Faith won a Grammy in 1989. He released three more best-selling albums between 1990 and 2004.

Lorelai refers to the fact that George Michael’s sexuality became public knowledge after he was arrested in 1998 for soliciting an undercover policeman in a public toilet in Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverley Hills, California. The charge was public lewdness. He was fined $810 and sentenced to 80 hours community service. He later made fun of the incident in the music video for his song “Outside”.

George Michael was accused of taking part in anonymous public sex in a toilet on Hampstead Heath in London in 2006, and in 2006 and 2008, he was arrested for possession of drugs in public toilets in London. But that’s all in the future at this point.

Richard and Emily’s Engagement

EMILY: We were going to meet my girlfriends who were going to drive me back to school.

RICHARD: And you were angry with me.

EMILY: Because you wouldn’t commit to plans for the holidays.

RICHARD: Because I was going to invite you to the house to meet my parents after I proposed.

EMILY: Which I didn’t know because you gave me no indication whatsoever.

RICHARD: Anyway, you had just finished calling me a spineless jellyfish.

EMILY: And you got very annoyed, reached in your pocket, pulled out a box and said, “Here.”

RICHARD: And you opened the box, showed no emotion, slammed it close and said, “Fine.”

Richard and Emily describe the circumstances of their engagement at Yale University, which happens during a fight while sitting next to a trash can, with the engagement ring being offered and accepted in a fit of temper. It’s somehow reminiscent of screwball romantic comedies of the 1930s and ’40s.

They were both in collage at the time – when Emily says she was going back to “school”, she means her own college. They must have got engaged at the end of the year, because they were arguing about their “holiday” (ie Christmas) plans at the time. Yet they were still able to sit outside, so it can’t have been freezing or snowing – surely they would have mentioned that if it had been the case? They may have got engaged in November, before Thanksgiving – around this time of year, in fact, although neither of them mentions that the date is close.

Helena Bonham Carter

EMILY: Richard Gilmore, you are going to give these girls the wrong impression.

RORY: What impression is that, Grandma?

LORELAI: That you were the Helena Bonham Carter of the society set?

Helena Bonham Carter (born 1966), English actress. She rose to fame in 1985 film A Room With a View, and became a favourite choice for playing a virginal “English rose” in period dramas – something she was uncomfortable with. Bonham Carter gained worldwide recognition in the 2000s, and has had many major roles, including awards for biographical film and TV The King’s Speech, Enid, and The Crown.

Lorelai is referring to the fact that in 1994, Helena Bonham Carter began an affair with fellow actor Kenneth Branagh while they were filming Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, even though Branagh was married to actress Emma Thompson at the time (they married in 1989).

Branagh and Thompson divorced in 1995, and Bonham Carter and Branagh broke up in 1999. They have all made peace with one another now, and the three of them had major roles in the Harry Potter film series. Helena Bonham Carter married director Tim Burton in 2001, the year before this episode aired. They divorced in 2014.

Amy Sherman-Palladino seems to have modelled her image very heavily on Helena Bonham Carter, who is known for her eccentric fashion and dark aesthetic, and for playing quirky female roles. I’d imagine she would be one of Sherman-Palladino’s favourite actresses, as well as her style icon.

Richard’s Engagement

RICHARD: Oh, that mouse and I were engaged.

EMILY: Oh, you were not.

RICHARD: I’d given her my pin, I’d introduced her to my parents … The date was set, invitations mailed out.

Although Emily denies that Richard was ever actually engaged to Linny Lott, he claims that a wedding date had been set and invitations mailed out, which sounds pretty solidly engaged to me.

In a former episode, Richard said he almost married a woman named Lucinda Lester, until Emily set her sights on him, due to his prowess at fencing reminding her of her celebrity crush, Errol Flynn.

Although it’s possible that Richard almost married two women with the initials LL he met in college, this does feel like a retcon, with Lucinda becoming Linny. Emily claimed Lucinda had a moustache, something she never says about Linny or Pennilynn.

Linny Lott

RICHARD: Linny Lott.

EMILY: That mouse?

Richard’s ex is called “Linny Lott” in this episode. Later she is called Pennilynn Lott. Linny sounds like a reasonable nickname for Pennilynn, but mysteriously, she is never again referred to as “Linny”.

Emily criticises Linny as too meek and mousy, with a rambling, discursive style of speech. Later, Richard’s mother has a quite different assessment of her, and this does not seem like a very good description of the woman we later meet.

Titian

EMILY: And then he’d talk about the paintings he had seen in Paris and the colors of Titian, and by the end of the date, you thought he was the most brilliant man in the entire world.

LORELAI: Using Titian to score. Even Titian didn’t do that.

Tiziano Vecelli, known in English as Titian (c.1489-1576), Italian painter of the Renaissance and considered the most important artist of the 16th century Venetian school. Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of colour, exercised a profound influence not only on painters of the late Italian Renaissance, but on future generations of Western artists.

[Painting shown is Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne].