Tag: Animals

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.

Tasmanian Devil

SOOKIE: And did you see [Jackson’s] eyes?
LORELAI: Tasmanian Devil.

Lorelai refers to the character, the Tasmanian Devil, or Taz, featured in Warner Bros cartoons, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Taz is generally portrayed as a ferocious, albeit dim-witted, carnivore with a notoriously short temper and little patience. Although based on the Australian mammal, the Tasmanian devil, it doesn’t resemble the real animal very strongly (Americans often have an exaggerated idea of the Tasmanian devil’s size and ferocity, possibly because of the cartoon). He made only a few appearances in the short films of the 1950s and 1960s, but enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the 1990s.

Mule

JESS: Hey. Your mom home?
RORY: I’m bringing supplies [carrying take out bags].
JESS: Should’ve brought a mule.
RORY: What?
JESS: A pack mule, to carry it.

Mule, a domesticated hybrid between a donkey and horse, the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). Mules vary widely in size, and may be of any color. They are more patient, hardier and longer-lived than horses, and are perceived as less obstinate and more intelligent than donkeys.

There is a comic misunderstanding here where Jess suggests that Rory get a mule if her mother is hungry, which Rory takes to be a rude comment that Lorelai is so greedy she would eat an entire mule! Jess quickly explains that he meant she should get a pack mule, to carry all the food (which is still a little rude, implying that Rory has bought a huge amount of food). Mules make good good pack animals, as they can bear heavy weights.

Bambi, Rabbit in Monty Python

JESS: Just lay low, it’ll come.
LUKE: Does it act all peaceful and Bambi-like and then suddenly attack like the rabbit in Monty Python?

Bambi, previously discussed.

Luke refers to the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog, a character in the film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, previously discussed. In the film, the Knights of the Round Table are told a particular cave is guarded by a fearsome monster – to their initial relief, this beast turns out to be what appears to be an ordinary white rabbit. No longer taking the warnings seriously, they approach the rabbit confidently – only for one of the knights to be instantly decapitated by a flying bunny. The rabbit kills two more knights and seriously injures several more before it is defeated.

Fishing Terminology

Angler – person who fishes using a rod and line.

Wire line – any fishing line made from flexible metal. Wire line is only intended for freshwater fishing.

Lure – a broad type of artificial angling bait designed to mimic real prey animals and attract the attention of predatory fish.

Downrigger – a device used in fishing which places the lure at the desired depth.

Vertical jig, or speed jig – a long, slender piece of lead or metal that cuts through the water, mimicking an injured baitfish.

Trolling – a method of fishing where one or more fishing lines, baited with lures or bait fish, are drawn through the water.

Bottom feeders – a marine animal which lives on or near the bottom of a body of water, and may feed principally by scavenging. Examples include flatfish, cod, haddock, carp, and bream.

Forage fish, also called prey fish or bait fish – small fish preyed upon by others for food. Examples include herring, sardines, and anchovies.

Cisco – a salmon-like fish, in the US, often refers specifically to the lake herring (Coregonus artedi).

OzzFest

RORY: It was a bat, wasn’t it?
LORELAI: Wearing an OzzFest T-shirt, I believe.

Ozzfest, music festival tour of the US (sometimes Europe and later Japan), featuring performances by heavy metal and hard rock musical groups. It was founded by Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, and was held almost annually between 1996 and 2018 before being revived in 2022. Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath played the tour several times over the years.

At the most recent OzzFest relative to this episode, the tour was in Hartford on July 13. As Lorelai is a heavy metal fan, and at a very loose end over the summer, is it possible she went to it, and really does have a tee-shirt? Or, if she meant the bat was wearing a tee shirt already in the garage, she (and maybe Rory) could have gone to OzzFest 1999 [1999 tee shirt pictured], which was in Hartford on June 19. If so, it means Lorelai bought her Jeep later that year.

Lorelai connects a bat to the OzzFest musical festival because in 1982, Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat at a concert in Des Moines. Stories vary as to whether the bat was alive, dead, or made of rubber, but Osbourne said the bat was alive, and gave him rabies. In 2019 Osbourne commemorated the anniversary of the bat incident by offering a toy bat with detachable head for sale on his personal web-store. The site claimed the first batch of toys sold out within hours.

Michel’s Deposition

MICHEL: My neighbor had this dog, a frisky little scamp that used to love to yap to his friends all night long. It was so cute. Then one day he disappeared. I told the police what I knew, but sadly the adorable little chatterbox was never found. It was tragic.
LORELAI: You got rid of a dog? …
MICHEL: I will gladly show you the transcript from the lawyer and the results of the lie detector test.
LORELAI: You’re heinous.
MICHEL: And very well rested.

Compare with Richard’s retort that at least he and Emily will be well rested, after Lorelai says they are both going to hell for snapping up a dead man’s property so quickly.

Michel, the (unproven) dog killer! It is actually possible to beat a lie detector test, although quite difficult. Michel is obviously a very cool customer. It’s much easier to fail one while being innocent, due to anxiety. These false positives are why evidence from one is not admissible in a court of law in the US.

“Slow and steady wins the race”

DEAN: Let’s take this one day at a time.

RORY: Slow and steady wins the race.

“Slow and steady wins the race” is a proverb from “The Tortoise and the Hare”, a story from Aesop’s Fables – a collection of tales from ancient Greece, attributed to a legendary slave named Aesop.

In the fable, the tortoise challenges the hare to a race, but the arrogant hare takes a nap midway through the race, sure that he has plenty of time to do so and still win the race. He wakes to find the tortoise has already crossed the finish line.

The moral of the story is that flashy overconfidence may be overtaken by conscientious plodding. In the same way, Dean hopes to win Rory back with his steady, reliable ways, while the “flashy” Jess misses out.