Satchmo

LORELAI: You named the spider Satchmo?
SOOKIE: After Jackson’s uncle.

Satchmo was the nickname of trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong, previously mentioned. The nickname is short for “Satchelmouth”, but its origin is not known. Some say simply because of the size of Armstrong’s mouth, while a story favoured by biographers is that as a young boy in New Orleans, Armstrong would dance for pennies, collecting the coins in his mouth to prevent bigger children from taking them from him.

Jackson’s uncle was apparently named after the short form of a celebrity’s nickname in honour of Louis Armstrong.

Papaya

SOOKIE: Papaya won’t eat, so I’m pretending to eat out of her bowl so she’ll copy me.
LORELAI: Sookie, you named the cat?

Papaya (Carica papaya), also known as pawpaw. A tropical fruit first domesticated in Mesoamerica, within modern-day southern Mexico and Central America. Spaniards introduced papaya to Europe in the 16th century. Papaya cultivation today spans Hawaii, central Africa, India, and Australia. India produces more papaya than any other country.

Babette had a cat named Cinnamon, and then got a kitten named Apricot. Women like calling their cats after food on this show. Sookie has committed numerous health and safety offences in the kitchen of the Independence Inn – now she is feeding a stray cat on the floor! They should have really have been shut down years ago.

Truffle Hunting

RORY: I’ve gotta head to school.
LORELAI: Hey, why go anymore? You’re in college. Let’s go truffle hunting or something.

Truffle, the fruiting body of a subterranean ascomycete fungus, predominantly one of the many species of the genus Tuber. Some truffle species are highly prized as food, and are considered a delicacy.

Truffles are cultivated and harvested in natural environments, usually growing close to tree roots. Because truffles are subterranean, they are often located with the help of an animal possessing a refined sense of smell. Traditionally, pigs have been used to extract truffles, but dogs can be used instead. Although dogs must be trained to hunt truffles, unlike pigs, they don’t have any interest in eating the truffles once they find them.

Truffle hunting is sometimes offered by truffle cultivators as a fairly expensive experience for people to enjoy and pay for. Such tours are most commonly offered in the Pacific North West of the US – in Oregon and Washington.

Portland

KIRK: I got the idea when I read about something a man was doing in Portland.
LORELAI: What was he doing?
KIRK: He was printing daily T-shirts featuring a humorous topical headline of something he witnessed around town.

Portland, a port city and the largest city in Oregon, in the Pacific North West of the US. It has a population of around 600 000. Named after Portland in Maine, the settlement began to be populated in the 1840s, as it was near the end of the Oregon Trail which led wagon trains to the west. Beginning in the 1960s, Portland became noted for its growing liberal and progressive political values, earning it a reputation as a hip bastion of counterculture.

I have been unable to discover if the man in Portland with the tee shirt business was real, or fictional. I have found no trace of him, and suspect he may be the writer’s idea of something quirky that people in Portland might do.

Subpoena

RORY: They’re not going to see our pro/con lists.
LORELAI: What if they subpoena them?

Subpoena, a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure.

Naturally Rory is busy making up pro-con lists to decide whether to accept Harvard or not.

A Tale of Poes and Fire

Edgar Allan Poe, born Edgar Poe (1809-1849), writer, poet, editor, and literary critic, best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in American literature. He was one of the country’s earliest practitioners of the short story, and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre, as well as a significant contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone.

This episode features the Edgar Allan Poe Society coming to the inn on the night it catches fire, and the famous poet receives several mentions.

Rory Gets Accepted to Everything

When they get home from the speech contest, they collect the mail and find that Rory has been accepted into Harvard. And Yale. And Princeton. And they all turned up on the same day – although as Kirk is in charge of the mail now, that may not be so surprising. I can only think that’s the reason why the writers made him the mailman for this week, although this job of his was mentioned the previous season. (Planning ahead?).

Fans sometimes think it is unrealistic for Rory to be accepted into three Ivy League universities, but Rory was an excellent student at a good school, a feeder school for Harvard. She was a legacy student at Yale and Princeton, and had assistance from an alumnus when applying to Harvard. She had several extracurricular activities at school, and was a valued contributor to her local community.

Furthermore, her background as the daughter of a single mother who had struggled for many years would have also helped boost her chances – Darren Springsteen said it would work to her advantage.