Tiny Tim, Gimpy

TAYLOR: You would kick Tiny Tim’s crutch out from under him, wouldn’t you?

LUKE: If he asks for a free cup of coffee, gimpy’s going down.

Timothy “Tiny Tim” Cratchit, a character from the 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. In the story, Tim is the young son of Ebenezer Scrooge’s employee, Bob Cratchit, and a very sick boy who needs crutches to walk. Scrooge is shown that Tim will die in the future unless he receives medical help that Bob cannot afford on the salary he receives from Scrooge. This is one of several visions which cause Scrooge to reform, and the story states that Tiny Tim didn’t die, and that Scrooge became a second father to him (presumably paying for medical treatment).

Gimpy is a derogatory name for someone who walks with a limp. The slang dates to the 1920s, and may be a combination of gammy and limp, gammy being used to describe a bad leg.

Tennessee Williams

TAYLOR: No, we have that money. The Tennessee Williams lookalike contest last month put us right over the top.

Thomas Williams III, known by his pen name Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), playwright and screenwriter. He is considered to be one of the foremost playwrights of the 20^th century. Williams had his first success with The Glass Menagerie in 1944, followed by a strong of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) and Sweet Bird of Youth (1959). Much of his work has been adapted for the cinema. In 1979, he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

It isn’t clear why Stars Hollow would hold a Tennessee Williams lookalike contest, although Williams’ literary agent did live in Connecticut, so there is a local link of a sort. Later on, it seems as if the town is keen to have fundraisers with a literary connection.

Taylor tells Luke they have enough money to restore the bridge now, and are currently raising money to buy a tarpaulin to cover the bridge, to ensure it doesn’t get further damaged during the winter before it can be restored. (Not only are tarpaulins not that expensive, Luke is able to locate and sew together numerous tarpaulins in a single night in the show’s final episode!). Despite this, Stars Hollow continues raising money for the bridge throughout the run of Gilmore Girls.

They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They?

The episode’s title is a reference to the 1969 psychological drama film, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, directed by Sydney Pollack and based on the 1935 novel of the same name by Horace McCoy.

Set during the Depression, the film focuses on a group of people desperate to win a dance marathon where they are ruthlessly exploited, and stars Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, and Susannah York. The title comes from the fact that horses are shot once they break their legs to put them out of their misery. The film was a commercial success, and is regarded as one of the best films of its era. It has aged well, and is still finding admirers.

As in the film, this episode is about a dance marathon – although it isn’t nearly as dramatic as the one in the film.

Haight-Ashbury and Electric Kool-Aid

BABETTE: Yeah, Taylor, this protest is gonna be very mellow, very peaceful.

TAYLOR: Well, you can hang out in Haight-Ashbury and drink as much electric Kool-Aid as you want, Babette, but I’m preparing for the worst.

Haight-Ashbury, a district of San Francisco, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. The neighbourhood is known as one of the main centres of the hippie counterculture of the 1960s, although it was also a centre for the Beat counterculture in the 1950s.

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe, previously discussed.

Rand McNally

RORY: She’s [Sherry’s] very up on traffic flow and rush hour and all that.

LORELAI: She’s Rand McNally.

Rand McNally, publishing and technology company that provides mapping for both electronic gadgets, and for educational purposes, well known for producing school atlases and road maps. William Rand opened a printing shop in Chicago in 1956, and two years later hired Irish immigrant Andrew McNally; the two men founded Rand McNally & Co in 1868. The first Rand McNally map appeared in a 1872 railway guide, and their first road map was published in 1904.

Lorelai and Rory left Boston at 6 pm, on Sherry’s advice. That means it would be around 8 pm when they get back to Stars Hollow and egg Jess’ car.

Quincy

SHERRY: Didn’t you schedule yours?

LORELAI: Not quite. A half hour before I had Rory, I was eating a pepper sandwich and watching TV. [to Rory] You were almost named Quincy.

Quincy ME, mystery medical drama series which aired from 1976 to 1983 (Lorelai must have been watching a repeat). Jack Klugman stars in the title role as a LA medical examiner who routinely engages in police investigations. The show was inspired by the book Where Death Delights, by Marshall Houts, a former FBI agent. Quincy’s character is loosely modelled on LA “Coroner to the Stars” Thomas Noguchi.

Lorelai said that she spent several hours in labour before having Rory. I presume that when she says she was watching TV half an hour before having Rory, she means that’s what she was doing half an hour before labour started.

Deenie

SHERRY: You have to give me your list of books, okay? … The ones that you read when you had Rory.

LORELAI: Oh, I see. Um, I think I was reading Deenie at the time . . .

Deenie, a 1973 young adult novel by Judy Blume, previously discussed. It is about a teenage girl named Willmadene “Deenie” Fenner who has to wear a back brace due to scoliosis. Although initially upset about the brace, Deenie eventually becomes resigned to her fate, and decides to give up the dream of being a model that her mother pushed on her. There is possibly a little parallel here with Rory eventually giving up the dream Lorelai pushed on her.

Gigi

SHERRY: Gigi, short for Georgia. The two Gs.

Another reference to the film Gigi, based on the novella by French author Colette, previously discussed. In the story, Gigi is short for Gilberte.

An ingenious fan has noted that if you change the Ls in Lorelai’s name to Gs, then it becomes an anagram of Georgia. Whether this is deliberate or a coincidence, I cannot say.

EDIT: Thanks to keen-eyed blog reader Melissa Adams-Cauble for noting that I’d gone G-crazy and changed name to game!

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.

World Wildlife Fund

In the opening scene, Lorelai’s mug has the World Wildlife Fund logo on it, while at the same time, Rory tells Lorelai all the catalogues she has accumulated are equal to starting a forest fire. Lorelai’s sudden desire to cut down on all the catalogues may be due to environmental concerns sparked by buying the mug. As she is also making her own seashell-shaped candles in this episode, she may be going through a mildly hippie phase.

The World Wildlife Fund is the North American name for the World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF). It’s an international organisation founded in 1961 that works for wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It is the world’s largest conservation organisation, with over five million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries and supporting around 3,000 conservation and environmental projects.