Tag: Education

Handball

LANE: Bible class has been moved an hour later, all to accommodate the reverend’s handball schedule.

In America, handball is a sport where players use their hands to hit a small rubber ball against a wall; it is sometimes called wallball. The idea is to hit the wall with the ball in such a way that your opponent is unable to do the same without hitting the ground twice, or hitting it out of bounds. The game is played on a small court, similar to a squash court. It is possible that the high school gym is used for handball in Stars Hollow.

The first historical record of someone hitting a ball against a wall with their hand is from Scotland in 1427, when King James I was a keen player. The game in America may go back to the American Revolution, but the earliest mention of the modern game is from San Francisco in 1873.

In the next season, we discover the Seventh Day Adventist pastor is named Reverend Melmim, although in real life, Seventh Day Adventist pastors aren’t actually addressed as “Reverend”.

It seems that even though Lane is grounded so badly she isn’t allowed to leave home, even to attend school, she is allowed to go to Bible class with her mother (and presumably, church). Later in the episode, we discover Bible class is on Saturday morning.

As Mrs Kim told Stars Hollow High that Lane had an infectious disease and was too sick to go to school, letting her out to attend Bible class seems like something the school would get to hear about.

Peppermint stick

SHERRY: Except that our colors were white and bright red. I looked hideous.
CHRISTOPHER: Oh, she’s being self-deprecating. You looked cute in that outfit.
SHERRY: No no, I looked like a peppermint stick. I swear, that’s where my addiction to clothes comes from. Trying to make up for all the years of having to wear the same thing every day.

A peppermint stick is a long stick of hard candy with peppermint flavouring, traditionally coloured with red and white stripes. They were developed in the US, and are often marketed as an “old fashioned” or traditional candy. They have been sold since at least 1837, when they were shown at an exhibition in Massachusetts, and were popular by the 1860s. By the early 1900s, they were already viewed nostalgically.

I don’t know of any private school in the US which has a bright red and white uniform. Note Sherry’s implication that she was very slim as a schoolgirl, when she compares herself to a skinny peppermint stick.

Willamette University of Law

PARIS: Professor Bomar of Willamette University of Law has prepared a lengthy summary that I’d like to use in my remaining time.

The Willamette University College of Law is a private law school in Salem, Oregon, founded in 1883 and part of Willamette University, which was founded in 1842, and is the oldest university in the Western United States.

It is pronounced wil-AM-it; Paris mispronounces it to sound more like William-ette.

Professor Bomar is fictional.

EDIT: Huge thanks to blog reader Dan Gray, who is from Oregon, for correcting me on the pronunciation of Willamette.

All-Boys Private School Uniform and a Yankees Cap

SOOKIE: I’m looking for a guy that looks like a guy that you could be with, only I’m deducting seventeen years off his age and I’m adding an all-boys private school uniform and a Yankees cap.

Sookie is looking around for Christopher, until Lorelai points out Sookie doesn’t know what he looks like. It seems hard to believe Lorelai has never shown Sookie a picture of Christopher, but from the way Rory treasures an old strip of photos of Christopher and Lorelai, it appears they possess no photo of him.

Sookie explains that she’s been looking for someone Lorelai would go out with, but imagining him seventeen years younger and in a private boy’s school uniform. This may suggest that Lorelai and Christopher went to separate single-sex private high schools. In real life, there are no single-sex private schools in Hartford itself, but a few in the nearby surrounding suburbs and towns that Lorelai and Christopher could have easily attended.

I’m not sure why Sookie is mentally making him a teenager in a school uniform when he’s an adult though. Maybe she’s going to then mentally add seventeen years to his age?

She gives him a Yankees cap because that’s what Luke wears!

Debating Team

RORY: Okay, 3:30 on Friday – my debate at Chilton. Write it down.

As well as working on the school newspaper, The Franklin, Rory is now on the debating team at Chilton. According to Paris, Rory is one of the best public speakers in the school, and as an aspiring journalist, it makes sense for her to gain experience debating in a public forum. An apt choice of extracurricular activity for Rory that will look good on her CV, and one I’m sure Paris pushed her into doing.

Harvard vs Yale

LORELAI: Dad, she wants to go to Harvard.
RICHARD: Well yes, because she thinks you want her to go to Harvard.

Richard hits it right on the head – where did Rory’s obsession with going to Harvard come from, except from Lorelai? Lorelai bought Rory a Harvard sweater when she was only four: not the usual clothing a toddler asks for on their own.

Richard is also correct that she’s too young to have set her heart on one specific college to attend. There are other good options available, and as Gilmores traditionally go to Yale, he would be able to help Rory get in as a legacy student. He does know more about the Ivy League system than Lorelai, who, despite being determined to have her daughter fulfil her dream of going to Harvard, has seemingly done little to educate herself about the process of being accepted there.

Harvard and Yale are traditional rivals, and it can’t have escaped Richard’s attention that Lorelai has rebelled against him by choosing his own alma mater’s main competition as her preferred university. He is tactful enough not to say that to her, though.

Richard is actually giving Lorelai good advice here. He probably shouldn’t have brought it up while he’s a guest, but at least he makes sure he doesn’t do it in front of Rory.

Obsession Board

RORY: We started the obsession board a few years ago. And then when we took that trip to Harvard, the student store was having a two for one flag sale, so that kind of sent us into the final stage of the psychosis. Hospitals were called, medications were prescribed, there is no cure.

Richard takes note of the cork board Rory has in her room, completely covered in Harvard memorabilia. Note that she says, “We started the obsession board a few years ago”. It was Lorelai who began the board, perhaps when Rory was about fourteen, and on the verge of starting high school.

Richard is taken aback that Rory is already so set on going to Harvard, when his alma mater is Yale University. He already knew it was Rory’s preference, now he discovers it is her absolute obsession and the only university she is interested in. That Rory says, “There is no cure”, probably suggests to Richard that she can’t see herself changing her mind.

The Oppenheimer Award for Excellence

PARIS: The Oppenheimer Award for Excellence in school journalism is not a contest. It’s a statement. It says you’re the best. The best writers, the best reporters, the best editors. It says that you have crushed all others who have dared to take you on. It says that every other single school in the United States of America is feeling nothing but shame and defeat and pain because of the people who won the Oppenheimer plaque. I wanna be those people, I wanna cause that pain.

The Oppenheimer Award for Excellence seems to have been named in honour of Jess Oppenheimer (1913-1988) [pictured], the creator, producer, and head writer of the sitcom I Love Lucy, starring Lucille Ball. Lucille Ball called him “the brains” behind Lucy, and he was the creative driving force of the show. (Jess may also be named after Oppenheimer!).

In real life, there are the National Pacemaker Awards in student journalism, which has a category for high school newspapers. They are administered by the National Scholastic Press Association. Founded in 1927, they are the student equivalent of the Pulitzer Prizes, and for that category the deadline is in June. There is no plaque handed out as a prize.

We never discover whether The Franklin won the award, but it is never mentioned again, suggesting that it didn’t.