Tag: Animals

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.

Kirk Buys a Cat

LORELAI: Nothing. You buy a cat?

KIRK: Yup. I’m very excited.

In the recent episode “They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They?”, Rory tried to persuade her mother to let Kirk win the dance marathon because he had so little in his life … not even a pet. Two episodes later, he buys a cat. Did Kirk overhear what Rory said, or was it relayed to him? We shall never know, but now he has a cat, with predictably unfortunate results.

Kirk has bought an enormous carry case for the cat, more suitable for a large dog! I’m not sure if that’s trying to tell us the size of the cat (did he accidentally buy a panther?) or Kirk’s incompetence buying cat equipment.

Shamu

LORELAI: Well, I don’t know his name because I only knew him by his nickname . . . Uh, Shamu. We called him Shamu. He was kind of, um, a big guy in high school, but he’s slimmed down quite a bit.

Lorelai tries to find out Peyton’s name by phoning the organisers and pretending he’s an old school friend that she only knows by his nickname, Shamu. Shamu is the name given to several performing orcas at Sea World, previously discussed. It is a cruel nickname sometimes given to people perceived as being overweight, because orcas are also called killer whales (with the implication the person is as as fat as a whale). Despite the name, orcas are actually members of the dolphin family.

Emily the Cobra

NATALIE: There she is, the Cobra … This woman gets her way or she squeezes ’til you comply.

Emily’s friend is Natalie Swope, played by Judy Geeson. You may remember her as one of the ladies from Emily’s tea party on the patio in “Presenting Lorelai Gilmore”. Emily introduces Natalie and Lorelai as if they are strangers, even though Natalie asked after Lorelai and seemed to remember her quite well in the previous season, despite not seeing Lorelai since she was a teenager (although, as Lorelai and Rory attended Emily’s Christmas party each year, this doesn’t seem plausible).

Natalie refers to Emily as “the Cobra”, because she squeezes people (puts pressure on them) until she gets what she wants from them. There are various snakes called cobra, but only those in the genus Naja from Asia are true cobras. They are notable for being able to rear up off the ground and flatten their necks to appear larger. They don’t attack prey by squeezing them, however – that’s pythons and boa constrictors. Cobras have highly venomous fangs instead, and all species are capable of delivering a fatal bite to a human.

Lorelai sometimes seems selfish and unreasonable in the way that she instinctively refuses her mother’s requests, but Emily’s reputation as domineering and manipulative, determined to get her own way at no matter what cost to the other party (the auctioneer is actually ill in this episode, but Emily has forced him to turn up and work) provides a good reason for that. She has no wish to be one of the Cobra’s many victims, and what seems like a reasonable request may well turn out to be something more sinister.