This book is on Luke’s book shelf. Forty Days is a 1992 non-fiction book by Bob Simon, an award-winning veteran journalist for CBS News. The book describes the forty days he spent being imprisoned and tortured by the Iraqis after being captured, along with four of his crew, during the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
It’s not clear whether Luke or Jess is reading the book – but like Lorelai and Rory, there is a good chance that they share books anyway. If it’s Luke’s book, it shows that, like Jess, he has an interest in journalism. (It feels as if everyone is interested in journalism on Gilmore Girls!).
The song Jess has playing when Lorelai is at Luke’s apartment.
“Love Burns” is the opening track of rock band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s 2001 debut album, B.M.R.C. Released as a single, it went to #37 in the UK the following year. The band were heavily influenced by classic English rock, and tended to do better in the UK than in their home country of the US.
The song’s lyrics speak passionately of Jess’ feelings for Rory, and the depth of his pain and anger caused by her neglect and rejection:
She cuts my skin and bruise my lips She’s everything to me She tears my clothes and burns my eyes She’s all I want to see She brings the cold and scars my soul She’s heaven sent to me
Now she’s gone love burns inside me Now she’s gone love burns inside me Now she’s gone love burns inside me
Never thought I’d leave you like the way I do, yeah Kiss my love and I wish you’re gone You can kiss my love and I wish you’re gone Never thought I’d leave you like the way that I do
Lorelai said in the pilot episode that bad boys have motorcycles. Even though it’s actually “good boy” Dean who has the motorcycle, Jess is still linked with them through the band. The band takes their name from Marlon Brando’s character’s biker gang in the 1953 film, The Wild One.
If Lorelai is listening to the song, it can’t make her feel any more comfortable about Jess. They would tell her he is still obsessed with Rory, and is furious about her. Lorelai has always said that Jess is a messed up, angry kid, and the lyrics are actually a little scary, as a reflection of Jess’ feelings.
Grunge fashion, the clothing, accessories and hairstyles of the grunge music genre and subculture which emerged in mid-1980s Seattle, and reached wide popularity by the mid-1990s. Grunge fashion is characterised by durable and timeless thrift-store clothing, often worn in a loose, androgynous manner. Flannel shirts over shabby tee shirts, ripped jeans, and Converse sneakers or Doc Marten boots were a classic look for men. The style was popularised by music bands Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam.
Despite what Lorelai says, the grunge look has never quite gone away. I’m pretty sure Stars Hollow High wouldn’t have a problem with Luke turning up wearing jeans and a flannel shirt.
Lorelai says, “Lucas, the school!” in Spanish, to remind him they are meant to be giving their talk at Stars Hollow High that afternoon. You probably recall that Luke’s full name is Lucas, which Lorelai learned of from Mia.
LANE: Pink? Or is that too Pink the singer and Kelly Osbourne and Gwen Stefani . . . man, there’s a lot of cheese associated with the color pink. Okay, pink’s out.
Pink, stylised as P!nk, the professional name of Alecia Moore (born 1979), singer, songwriter, actor, and dancer [pictured]. Originally a member of the girl group Choice, she signed with record label LaFace in 1995. Her 2000 debut album Can’t Take Me Home went double platinum, and included the Top Ten hits “There You Go”, and “Most Girls”. Her 2001 album Mizzundaztood sold 13 million copies and yielded the international hits, “Get the Party Started”, “Don’t Let Me Get Me”, and “Just Like a Pill”.
Kelly Osbourne (born 1984), English singer, actress, fashion designer, model, and television personality, the daughter of Ozzy Osbourne, lead singer for heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and his wife Sharon Osbourne. Kelly, and the rest of her family, had recently come to prominence with their award-winning reality TV show The Osbournes, which first aired on MTV in March 2002, and lasted until 2005. The show covered the family’s domestic life in Beverley Hills.
Gwen Stefani (born 1969), singer, songwriter, rapper, fashion designer, and actress. She is a co-founder, lead vocalist, and the primary songwriter of the band No Doubt, previously discussed.
At various times, each of these celebrities have sported pink hair.
This is the beauty store in town where Rory and Lane buy Lane’s hair dye. Amusingly, it has a typically practical, generic name, like Stars Hollow Agricultural Supply. You don’t get lured into shopping for beauty products in Stars Hollow by something called Charmaine’s House of Glamour, or The Beauty Spot – you buy beauty products in the same pragmatic manner you pick up animal feed or a box of nails.
I take it Lane and Rory don’t usually shop here, as Rory is surprised to find that Shane works at the store – possibly as as an after-school job, I’m not sure if the show ever confirms whether Shane is still in high school.
I’m also not sure if Rory ever knew Shane before – they’re about the same age and live in a small town, so it seems likely, but she never says anything like, “Ugh, that awful Shane, I’ve hated her ever since she stole Jimmy Dandridge’s lunch in Fourth Grade”. Perhaps their paths didn’t cross, but they are not strangers either, so that she was vaguely aware of Shane’s existence, but never gave her a thought. Stars Hollow is just big enough that this is possible, especially if Shane’s family moved to town only in the last few years.
RORY: Look, Mama Kim always starts out super serious on everything but then lightens with time.
I believe this is the first time Lane’s mother is referred to as Mama Kim, previously she was just “Mrs Kim” or “Lane’s mom”. Mama Kim is the preferred fan designated name for her character.
Rory’s comment is further evidence that Mrs Kim is not nearly as strict as she likes to make out, and is capable of eventually changing her mind.
LANE: Oh, and the piece de resistance! She found an Amish school in Nicaragua.
This is completely fictional. There are no Amish colleges or universities, as their education only goes up to eighth grade. There is an Amish community in Nicaragua, but it isn’t as strict as others – they use electricity and drive cars.
Pièce de résistance – French phrase commonly used in English. It means, “the most important or remarkable feature”.
LANE: Quaker College was a delightful surprise, with its special appeal to Richard Nixon, who’s dead but still deeply involved in campus recruiting.
Richard Nixon, former US president, previously and frequently mentioned. He was born into a evangelical Quaker family in California in 1913, and brought up in Quaker ways of the time, such as abstaining from dancing, alcohol, and swearing. He largely left his religion behind in his pursuit of political power, and doesn’t seem to have attended Quaker meetings or events in adulthood.
Nixon was offered a scholarship to Harvard, but chose to remain close to home instead and attended Whittier College in Whittier, California from 1930 to 1934, graduating with a BA in History. Although named after the Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier, the college hasn’t been officially affiliated with the Society of Friends since the 1940s. A liberal arts college, Latino students make up half the population, and 75% of the students are people of colour. If Richard Nixon is recruiting students from beyond the grave, his policy is perhaps slightly unexpected.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 