Rosa Parks

TAYLOR: Well, that’s not indicated here, but it doesn’t matter, because protesting is not allowed in the town square, period. It’s un-American.

LUKE: You mean like the Revolutionary War?

BABETTE: And Rosa Parks?

TAYLOR: That’s different. They were against the British and buses. No one likes the British or buses.

Rosa Parks (1913-2005), an activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1955, she refused a bus driver’s order that she vacate her row of seats in the “coloured” section of the bus to make way for white people, once the “white” section was full. Her act of civil disobedience helped inspire the black community to boycott the Montgomery bus company for over a year. In 1956, the courts decided that bus segregation was unconstitutional.

Rosa Parks became an international icon of resistance to segregation, and collaborated with civil rights leaders such as Edgar Nixon and Martin Luther King Jr. Although widely honored in later years, she also suffered for her act; she was fired from her job, and received death threats for years afterwards.

Rosa Parks received the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and a posthumous statue in the United States Capitol’s National Statuary Hall. Upon her death in 2005, she was the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda. California and Missouri commemorate Rosa Parks Day on her birthday, February 4, while Ohio, Oregon, and Texas commemorate the anniversary of her arrest, December 1.

Comically, Taylor thinks that Rosa Parks was protesting buses, which he appears to approve of! Is Taylor against public transport?

Boo Radley

MISS PATTY: [The Town Loner’s] a bit creepy …

LORELAI: But he’s our Boo Radley, and we don’t have a Boo Radley, unless you count the troubadour or Pete the pizza guy or the guy who talks to mailboxes.

Boo Radley, character from To Kill a Mockingbird, previously discussed.

We learn here that Lorelai sees Pete the pizza guy as one of the town “outsiders”, along with the town loner, the town troubadour, and the (unknown) guy who talks to mailboxes. This might come as a surprise, since running a pizza restaurant and delivery service does not seem like something that would isolate a person from their town or be a suitable job for a hermit. It does seem very typical of Lorelai to choose someone considered a bit eccentric to be their regular pizza provider though.

In an earlier season, Lorelai nominated Jackson’s cousin Rune as a “Boo Radley”. She doesn’t mention him in this context, and in fact Rune is never seen or mentioned again. He was only meant to be staying in town temporarily, so presumably he left sometime after Christmas of 2001.

Here we are at another town meeting, which used to be on Thursdays, and then mysteriously were held on a Saturday this season. I don’t know what day it is now, but it is neither Thursday nor Saturday. They’re just sticking a town meeting in whenever they feel like it.

Marathon Man

LORELAI: And, by the way, not just for me – it was pretty bad for him, too. It wasn’t like he was in love and I was miserable. We were both in pain – deep pain, Marathon Man kind of pain.

Marathon Man, a 1976 thriller directed by John Schlesigner, adapted by William Goldman from his own novel of the same name. It stars Dustin Hoffman as Thomas “Babe” Levy, a history student and avid runner who becomes embroiled in a plot by wanted Nazi war criminal Christian Szell, played by Laurence Olivier, known as “The White Angel” for his mane of white hair.

Marathon Man was a commercial and critical success, with Olivier’s performance being especially praised, and the character of Babe being someone audiences could relate to.

In the film, which is fairly violent overall, there are horrifyingly painful scenes of Szell torturing Babe by using dentistry tools to drill into his healthy teeth. Szell is considered one of the most memorable movie villains because of this, and the torture scenes among the scariest on film. Marathon Man is considered one of the greatest thrillers of all time.

Lorelai melodramatically compares her tedious date with Peyton as akin to the torture undergone by Babe in the film.

Lorelai Apologises to Emily

LORELAI: Sorry about the whole Peyton thing. When I asked you for his number, I didn’t think … Think about what would happen if things didn’t work out with us. I mean, I know his mom is your friend, and I shouldn’t have even gotten mixed up in this whole thing if I wasn’t prepared to remember that what I do will affect you, and to me it’s just a Bowie concert, but to you, it’s not. I was a little thoughtless and I’m sorry, but you have to understand that I was not lying when I said we had a bad time.

Lorelai has listened to her father, and decides she needs to apologise to Emily for putting her social life in jeopardy. She acknowledges that she didn’t think about the consequences might be if she and Peyton didn’t get along, or consider how that might affect Emily. She goes to some lengths to explain to Emily how awful the date with Peyton was, and then says that, even so, she will still go on the date with Peyton if Emily wants her to.

Lorelai is clearly hoping her mother will take mercy on her plight … I ask again, has she actually met her mother before? Naturally, Emily graciously thanks Lorelai for her apology, and tells her to wear blue on her date with Peyton. There’s a real theme of women wearing blue in order to look pretty on this show.

This is another scene where Lorelai and Emily go off to have a private chat in the kitchen, where the maid is mysteriously absent.

Visions of Cody

This is the book that Jess is reading when Rory runs into him while she’s panicking about the water issue.

Visions of Cody is an experimental novel by Jack Kerouac, previously discussed and frequently mentioned. It was written in 1951-52, with excerpts from it published in 1959, but not published in its entirety until 1972 – by then, it already had an underground reputation.

Visions of Cody is derived from experimental spontaneous prose inserts that Kerouac added to the original manuscript of On the Road in 1951–52. Although the narrative of the novel is meandering, consisting of short stream-of-conscious essays, transcriptions of taped conversations, and writing exercises, it focuses on the friendship between Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady (named Jack Duloz and Cody Pomeroy in the text). The book has been described as an early example of New Journalism.

Jess loves Kerouac, the Beat writers, and writing which contains journalism and fiction, so this book is a natural fit for him. Like Rory, he likes to delve deeper into novels he likes, and it makes sense that he would want to read this as a companion to On the Road.

Jess is able to read a book while walking. It’s interesting to speculate why he is wandering along Rory’s street, reading a Kerouac book. Is he mildly stalking Rory, or hoping he’ll run into her? How often does Jess do this “casual stroll near Rory’s house reading an underground classic” routine?

Trivial Pursuit

DORIS: I would’ve found you sooner if I had bothered to look, but now I have, I found you, and all I can say is this – I want my board games back! I want them back and I want them back now! And I will hunt you down to the ends of the Earth until I get them back – especially the Trivial Pursuit!

Trivial Pursuit, a board game in which winning is determined by a player’s ability to answer general knowledge and popular culture questions in different categories, collecting wedges for each category until the playing piece is full. It was created in 1979 by Chris Haney and Scott Abbott in Montreal, Canada, and released in 1981. It was one of the most popular games of the 1980s.

Incidentally, the fact that Doris has tracked Dwight down may explain why we never see him again. Doris may have forced him to return home, or demanded that he sell the house in Stars Hollow as it is a joint asset. Or maybe he just went on the run again to escape from her. Either way, there’s nothing to say that he remained living in Stars Hollow, although no real proof that he ever left.

Dwight’s Wife

DORIS: [on answering machine] Dwight, hi it’s Doris. Doris, your wife, remember me? The woman who was asleep in bed when you snuck out the window like a spineless little worm!

It turns out that Dwight isn’t in fact separated or divorced from his wife, but climbed out of the window while she was asleep. As he moved to Stars Hollow and bought a house, that’s a very serious escape attempt!

This does raise more questions, such as where did Dwight get the money to buy the house without Doris noticing, how did he manage to get to Stars Hollow to go house hunting without Doris noticing, where did he live during the settlement period (unless he just murdered Beenie Morrison, of course), how did he manage to take all the board games with him when he got out the window, and how has Doris managed to find his phone number? I guess his number is listed, for the last one, which seems stupid if he’s on the run from his wife.

The formidable Doris is voiced by Alex Borstein, who played Drella in Season 1.

Namaste

DWIGHT: [on answering machine]Hey, it’s Dwight. Leave me a message. Namaste.

Namaste, a Hindu greeting, farewell, thank you, and acknowledgement. It literally means “bowing to you” in Sanskrit, often translated as “I bow to the divine in you”. It is usually spoken with a slight bow and hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointing upwards, thumbs close to the chest.

Dwight using this as his answering machine greeting is probably meant to reflect his embracing of “exotic” cultures in his search for a new, more relaxed life. I can see him signing up for Miss Patty’s yoga classes.

Richard Tells Lorelai She Has to Date Peyton

RICHARD: Before this unfortunate incident, Sally Wallington always received the first cup of tea. When she was suddenly demoted, your mother moved up to the prime tea spot, and she’s held that spot ever since. Now, she’s very proud of that spot, and now she’s afraid that this little incident may jeopardize it.

When Richard phones Lorelai, it is to tell her that she has to go to the concert with Peyton, because otherwise she may jeopardise Emily’s social standing in the Hartford community ie receiving the first cup of tea at DAR meetings.

Lorelai thinks this sounds ridiculous, and Richard agrees – but he doesn’t care. No matter how silly it may sound, it’s important to Emily to have that first cup of tea, and Richard will do anything he can to help her get it.

This provides Lorelai with another viewpoint on the subject, that Emily’s feelings are more important because a dispute with Peyton’s mother will have long-term effects on Emily’s social standing and happiness. On the other hand, for Lorelai to go on one boring date with Peyton is only a few hours out of her life – and it’s at a David Bowie concert, which Lorelai wants to see anyway, with less chance for listening to Peyton drone on than at dinner.

As Lorelai said Peyton was equally bored and unhappy on their date, I can think of an obvious solution – Peyton and Lorelai could just pretend to go on a date with each other in order to keep everyone happy. Or Lorelai could cancel the date with some polite fiction, such as a sudden illness or urgent situation. Apparently this is too simple a fix.

Cardio Salsa, Miami Sound Machine

Salsa [pictured] is an energetic Latin dance, associated with the music genre of the same name, which was first popularised in the United States in the 1960s in New York City. Salsa is an amalgamation of Cuban dances, such as mambo, pachanga and rumba, as well as American dances such as swing and tap. It was primarily developed by Puerto Ricans and Cubans living in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Cardio salsa is a high-impact fitness routine that uses salsa dancing to keep the heart rate elevated at the same level it would be during jogging.

Miami Sound Machine, previously discussed.

It is never said where Lorelai got the cardio salsa tape that she shows Rory, but it’s interesting that Rory bought Michel a cardio salsa tape for Christmas in 2000 (Season 1). Has he re-gifted it to Lorelai? Rory never says that she recognises it, but she certainly doesn’t seem impressed.