Tag: Organisations

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.

Society Matron’s League

EMILY: I’m in charge of the Society Matron’s League’s annual antique auction next Tuesday and I thought maybe you’d like to come.

A reference to the sitcom I Love Lucy, frequently mentioned and one of the touchstones for Gilmore Girls.

In the episode “Pioneer Women”, Lucy and her friend Ethel hope for the chance to join the Society Matron’s League, a fictional snooty women’s club for the cream of Manhattan society. Representatives of the SML turn up for tea in order to scrutinise the prospective candidates while Lucy and Ethel are in the middle of one of their trademark madcap frolics.

Looking down their noses, the society matrons are condescendingly prepared to overlook Lucy’s eccentricities, and the fact that she and her Cuban-born husband are “show people”, but Lucy realises what awful snobs they are and is no longer interested.

Lorelai Gets Accosted by the Stars Hollow Moms

As Lorelai and Luke leave the school after their talks, Debbie Fincher leads a posse of concerned mothers, presumably other members of the PTA, who are appalled to hear what happened during Lorelai’s talk. Not appalled enough to put a stop to it or anything, but appalled nonetheless. It’s all to drive home the point, yet again, that Lorelai is a “cool mom” and not like any other mother around.

I am not sure how Debbie managed to get all these women together at once so quickly – were they all hiding around the corner, just waiting for Debbie to come fetch them? Did Debbie leave early in order to round the other mothers up? I suppose we are meant to presume that their lives are so empty that they have literally nothing better to do.

Note that the Stars Hollow moms all dress alike in the same kind of brown patterned cardigan, and all wear blonde bobbed wigs. It’s the episode for bad wigs, this one.

According to the credits, the other two mothers besides Debbie who speak to Lorelai are called Jan and Lois, played by Julie Wittner and Merry Simkins.

Lorelai’s Careers Talk Goes Off Script

Lorelai begins giving her careers talk at Stars Hollow High, but it is almost immediately hijacked by students who are more interested in hearing about when she got pregnant with Rory, and whether she regrets it. You get the distinct impression that for these teens, Lorelai has long been a source of fascination (and probably of gossip), and they have been waiting for an opportunity to ask questions about her decision to keep Rory and commit to being a single mother.

Lorelai looks to Debbie Fincher for help, but receives absolutely none – it’s a supervised event organised by the PTA, and yet nobody steps in to ask the students to keep their questions only on the subject of Lorelai’s career, not her personal life. Lorelai could have said something along these lines herself, but she makes an attempt to answer their questions honestly, to show that she’s not ashamed. Unfortunately, she makes a bit of a mess of it – by the end she is very unwisely offering to take them all out for coffee to discuss her life in more depth. Boundaries, Lorelai!

One of the girls asking questions is Riki Lindhome (she’s the one with blonde pigtails), who would play the role of Juliet in later seasons of Gilmore Girls. At that time she had had a small role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She later got her big break in Tim Robbins’ hit play, Embedded, and was then cast in her first film role by Clint Eastwood in Million Dollar Baby (2004). She’s gone on to have a successful career in film and television, and performs in a comedy duo called Garfunkel and Oates with Kate Micucci.

Republicans

LORELAI: So, I think I’m in touch with the other side …

RORY: With Republicans?

The Republican Party in the US, founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists, with an elephant as its symbol, for reasons nobody seems sure about. It shifted towards the right in the early twentieth century and is now a socially conservative party, tending to favour free market economics. It supports lower taxes, gun rights, restrictions on immigration, restrictions on abortion, restrictions on unions, and increased military spending. Since the 1850s it has been the main political rival to the Democratic Party, so when Lorelai says she is in touch with “the other side” (meaning the supernatural realm), Rory asks whether she means the other side of politics. Lorelai and Rory are Democrat supporters.

Hillary Clinton and C-SPAN

RORY: It’s not due for weeks, and I already have my essay topic picked out … Hillary Clinton … She’s so smart and tough and nobody thought she could win New York but she did and she’s doing amazing, and have you heard her speak?

DEAN: Only when you’ve played me the thousands of hours of C-SPAN footage you taped.

RORY: She’s a great speaker, strong and persuasive, with a wonderful presence, and even those suits of hers are getting better.

Hillary Clinton, previously discussed. We now discover Rory is a complete fangirl of hers.

C-SPAN, Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network. Cable and satellite television network created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the US federal government, as well as other public affairs programs.

Note that Dean has to watch hours of C-SPAN footage taped by Rory, but she wouldn’t watch BattleBots with him until he went to her debutante ball as her escort. Maybe she also pays him back in some way (or she considers just going out with Dean enough of a big favour?).

National Guard

JESS: Two weeks ago there was a run on snow cones. Machine broke, people went crazy, Taylor tried to call in the National Guard, but –

The National Guard is a state-based military force that is part of the reserve component of the US Army and Air Force when activated for federal missions – what would be called the Army Reserve in other countries. The idea of a local militia in the US goes back to the earliest English colonisation of the Americas, the first one formed in 1636. The title National Guard has been used nationally since 1903, and there are currently more than 400 000 people serving in the National Guard.

The National Guard may be activated in times of emergency, such as hurricanes, wildfires, riots, or terrorist attacks. Jess jokingly likens the snow cone machine breaking down to such disasters. This comment from Jess sounds as if he is beginning to fit in with the town better – the crack about Taylor and the snow cones sounds like something Luke would say, or even Lorelai. His summer in Stars Hollow, and perhaps dating a girl from the town, is helping him to feel more at home there.

EPA

KIRK: Well, get rid of it … Uh, but don’t throw it in the trash. Apparently, that would be an EPA violation.

The EPA, Environmental Protection Agency. Independent agency of the US federal government tasked with matters of environmental protection. It began operation in 1970, under orders from President Richard Nixon, and is headquartered in Washington DC.

The fact that Kirk’s beauty products cannot be thrown out without violating orders from the EPA suggests that they are made from potentially hazardous chemicals. Probably a good thing that nobody at the inn used them!