Tag: Organisations

Pet Fair

Lorelai and Rory spontaneously decide to check out a pet fair which is being held in the town square. From the signs, we can see it is sponsored by Petfinder.com, the largest pet adoption website in North America, founded in 1996. They hold frequent pet fairs in states all over America, linking with towns and cities that have rescue shelters – from this we know that Stars Hollow must have its own rescue shelter.

Lorelai longs to get a dog, a wish which comes true several seasons later.

Junior League

 

LORELAI: All right now honey, tell Grandma that you arrived there [at her house] not a member of the Junior League; I’d like you to leave there the same way.

The Junior League is a women’s volunteer organisation giving service to the community. It was founded in 1901 by Mary Harriman Rumsey, the daughter of a railroad executive, and through its history, many prominent women have been members, including Katharine Hepburn, Eudora Welty, Shirley Temple Black, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Sandra Day O’Connor.

For many years, the Junior League was thought of as a particularly upper-middle class, WASPY-y sort of organisation, but since the late 1970s has worked hard to become more inclusive, and now the membership much more diverse.

Child Protective Services

LORELAI: Yeah. I’ve cursed in front of them twice and Miss Patty already tried to hit on my dad, and I’m sure my mom is going to call Child Protective Services.

The state government agency in charge of monitoring and providing support in cases of child neglect or abuse is called the Department of Children and Families. They have branches all over Connecticut, including in Hartford.

Going postal

LORELAI: We have stretched ourselves as thin as humanly possible without going completely postal.

In American slang, “going postal” means to become uncontrollably angry to the point of violence, especially in a workplace situation. The expression comes from a series of incidents from the mid-1980s onward in which over-stressed United States Postal Service workers committed mass murder as a result of workplace rage. The earliest known use of the phrase is 1993.

Secret handshake

MICHEL: There is a man with a funny accent on the phone asking for you.
LORELAI: Really? Did you guys exchange the secret handshake?

A secret handshake is any non-standard handshake used to signify fellowship within a certain group. The most famous organisation with a secret handshake is The Freemasons.

It is not clear who the man with the funny accent is: it is presumably either Mr. Medina or Headmaster Charleston, neither of whom has an especially hilarious accent. Maybe all Americans sound funny to Michel.

Public access station

MICHEL: If you ask me this union belongs on a public access station.

In the United States, every community that has cable TV access has the right to a public access channel. There are numerous public access channels in Connecticut, usually supplying information from government, colleges, schools, and non-profit organisations. Why a double twin wedding would be featured by one is a mystery to me; it sounds more like a reality TV show.