Footnotes to the TV series
Raid the fridge for snacks
Make an avocado and mango face mask
Tell their fortunes with tarot cards
Play the board game Twister
Make milkshakes with Häagen-Dazs chocolate-with-chocolate-chip ice cream
Watch the 1984 rock musical drama film, Purple Rain, starring Prince
Because it’s now midnight, the only one of these they did was have milkshakes.
LORELAI: So it was the uniform, huh?
MISS PATTY: Aw, it’s the Biloxi Naval Base all over again.
Biloxi is a coastal city in Mississippi. There isn’t actually a naval base there – there’s a military base for the air force though. Miss Patty might be thinking of the Naval Construction Battalion Center in nearby Gulfport, about ten miles further down the coast – the cities are so close that they share the same airport, and other facilities, and the air force and naval bases are close together.
Both these military bases provided training to new recruits in the second half of the twentieth century, beginning in World War II. It’s possible that Miss Patty, who seems to have been a New Yorker before she moved to Stars Hollow, entertained the troops at one or both of these bases, perhaps during the Vietnam War, when she would have been in her early twenties.
LORELAI: A bizarro Battle of the Bands.
A Battle of the Bands is a contest in which bands, usually rock or metal, but not always, compete for the title of best band, with the winner usually chosen by popular vote from the audience. They are often held as part of live music events, and sometimes at schools and universities. Their history goes back to at least the big band era of the 1930s.
RUNE: Welcome Lords and Ladies. I call upon these sprightly horns to commence our proceedings. [horns play] Hey Chuck Mangione, you wanna back up a step?
Charles “Chuck” Mangione (born 1940) is a flugelhorn player, trumpeter, and composer. He came to prominence in the 1960s as a member of Art Blakey’s jazz band, then formed The Jazz Brothers with his brother Gaspare “Gap” Mangione. He has released more than sixty albums, and achieved international success with his 1977 jazz-pop single, Feels So Good. His compositions have been used in films and for the Olympic Games. He played himself as a voice actor on animated sitcom King of the Hill (1997-2010).
EMILY: Fine. You go and I’ll wait and hold your cotton candy for you.
Cotton candy, otherwise known as candy floss or fairy floss, is a spun sugar confection, often coloured pink or blue and carried on a stick. The machine-made variety was invented by a dentist named William Morrison and a confectioner named John Wharton in 1897; it was first widely made available to the public at the World’s Fair in 1904. It’s a traditional treat sold at circuses, fairgrounds, and carnivals.
RICHARD: Say, when was the last time we were on a roller coaster?
EMILY: Never.
RICHARD: Didn’t we ever go to Coney Island?
EMILY: That must’ve been your other wife.
Coney Island is a neighbourhood of Brooklyn in New York. Originally one of the Outer Barrier Islands, it became a peninsula in the early twentieth century when landfill connected it to Long Island. It became a seaside resort in the mid-nineteenth century, and by the late nineteenth century amusement parks had been built there.
The amusement parks began to decline after World War II, and by the 1950s were confined to a small area. At the time Richard and Emily would have been dating in the 1960s, Coney Island was considered crime-ridden and dangerous, so I don’t think Richard could ever have taken Emily there, and the last amusement park closed there in 1964, not to open again until the next decade. He might have gone there as a child though.
The amusement parks began to be revitalised in the early twenty-first century, and once more has many attractions. The famous roller coaster there is the Coney Island Cyclone, built in 1927, and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. Richard and Emily could have gone on it in 2001-2002 when it was part of Astroland, despite feeling as if Coney Island is something from another era.
PARIS: Well, my parents are out of town, so my Portuguese nanny will make dinner and then I’ll either get back to reading The Iliad or we’ll play Monopoly. I crush her every time.
The Iliad, an ancient Greek epic poem, attributed to Homer, and usually dated to around the 8th century BC. The poem is set during the final weeks of the Trojan War, but contains so many allusions to past and future events that by the end it has told the entire story.
Monopoly, a board game where players roll dice to move around the board while buying and trading property. First published by Parker Brothers in 1935, and based on the 1903 The Landlord’s Game created by Lizzie Magie, it is one of the most well-known board games in the world.
Paris’ parents have gone away just as Paris goes on her break from school. It’s almost as if they’re trying to get away from her; they’re certainly not including her in their plans … no wonder the poor kid needs a nanny.
DEAN: Hey Lane. Are you going to this big shindig at the inn tonight?
LANE: Yeah, I’m just trying to trick my mom into not going with me.
A shindig is an informal word for a small party, especially one that is lively, noisy, or out of control. Originally it was entirely rural, and seems to come from the American South, with the suggestion that the dancing was going to get so vigorous in such a small space that you’d literally be kicking people’s shins. It is not impossible that there is a connection with the Scottish Gaelic word sinteag, meaning “jump, leap”.
LORELAI: Hey, you know what? Let’s invite everyone …
RORY: And they could even stay in the inn. All those empty rooms, all those uneaten pillow mints.
LORELAI: An out of control, over the top slumber party!
A slumber party, pyjama , or sleepover, is a party where everyone sleeps in the same house. Typically people play pranks and games, watch movies, or stay up all night talking and laughing. Usually for children and teenagers, if organised by adults, expect a lot of drinking, just like the Bracebridge Dinner!
Lorelai avoids Sookie’s plan of her having a cosy dinner with Luke by impulsively inviting everyone they know to the cancelled Bracebridge Dinner. It may not be entirely a coincidence that she also avoids Rory and Jess having a cosy dinner together. The idea of spending some quality time with Jess probably doesn’t appeal much to Lorelai.
This episode (like many of the “towny” instalments) is justifiably a fan favourite, and much of the appeal comes from the wish fulfilment of staying in a hotel with all your friends for free, eating a massive fantasy banquet, doing snow-related activities, and drinking until dawn. Who wouldn’t enjoy that?
LORELAI: For the Bracebridge Dinner.
JACKSON: Geez, you guys are going crazy with this dinner.
SOOKIE: Jackson, I told you, this dinner is not just about food. We are recreating an authentic 19th century meal.
LORELAI: The servers are all gonna be in period clothing, they’re gonna speak period English. Here, look at the costumes.
The Bracebridge Dinner is an annual tradition which has been held at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, California since 1927, when the hotel opened. The interior of the Ahwahnee was an inspiration for the hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s film, The Shining – a hint as to how Lorelai may have become interested in holding her own Bracebridge Dinner.
The Bracebridge Dinner is a seven-course formal gathering held in the Grand Dining Room and presented as a feast given by a Renaissance-era lord. It was inspired by the fictional Squire Bracebridge’s Yule celebration in a story from the 1820 work, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., by American author Washington Irving. Music and theatrical performances based on Irving’s story accompany the introduction of each course.
Tickets to the Bracebridge Dinner cost around $400 and are generally difficult to obtain, sometimes being awarded in a lottery system. In 1992, there were 60 000 applicants for the 1650 seats available. This could be the reason why the Trelling Paper Company from Chicago have decided to hold their own Bracebridge Dinner at the Independence Inn.
Sookie says they will be serving an authentic 19th century meal, but in fact it is a Renaissance-themed meal. There’s not that much authentic about the dinner really, however I’m pretty sure the 19th century one wasn’t either. It’s a bit of fun and frolic, not a history lesson.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 