LORELAI: Wow, does that guy look smart. I mean it, he’s got the smart look down. The glasses, the furrowed brow, the ticky walk.
RORY: The Kierkergaard.
Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Danish theologian and philosopher, widely considered to the first existential philosopher. Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a “single individual”, giving priority to concrete human reality over abstract thinking and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment. By the mid-20th century, his thought had exerted a substantial influence on philosophy, theology, and Western culture in general.
LORELAI: The way you survive a road trip with my mother is to make sure you have all your bases covered, leave nothing to chance. Never give her the opportunity to give you a thirty-minute lecture on how, if you’d brought the second bathing suit like she told you to, it wouldn’t have mattered that the first one’s strap broke in a freak pool slide incident that no one, including the Amazing Kreskin, could’ve predicted, you would’ve been covered.
RICHARD: Well, I’m no Perry Como, but my shower hasn’t kicked me out yet.
Pierino “Perry” Como (1912-2001), singer, actor and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded primarily vocal pop and was renowned for the intimate, easy-listening genre. He sold millions of records and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show.
Como received five Emmys, a Christopher Award, and a Peabody Award. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1987 and was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1990. Posthumously, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002 and was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006. He has the distinction of having three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in radio, television, and music.
RICHARD: I’m going to be going back there next week. There’s going to be a little reunion of the Whiffenpoofs … It’s an a cappella singing group I belonged to at Yale.
The Whiffenpoofs are a real a capella singing group at Yale University. Established in 1909, it is the oldest such group in the US. The line-up is completely replaced each year, and is always composed of rising seniors, who may take a year’s absence in order to go on tour nationally and internationally. Cole Porter is their most famous alumnus.
LORELAI: Mom, you know, if you’re not a little nicer to your help, you might find yourself in a Frank Lloyd Wright situation … Mrs. Wright apparently had this major problem with her help. She was very rough on them and they totally hated her. So this guy who had worked for her forever, he had finally had enough … Anyhow, Mrs. Wright invites this whole posse of people over for dinner and they’re all sitting around eating, and Mr. Disgruntled Servant Guy goes outside and locks all the doors and windows and douses the whole house in gasoline and sets the place on fire … So the house is on fire, and people are freaking out, so they run to the doors but the doors are locked, so a few of them try to get out through the windows, but Mr. Angry-Puss is standing outside with an ax hacking them to death and so they all died.
Lorelai refers to the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). It’s often been speculated that he was one of the inspirations for the character of Howard Roark in Ayn Rand’s novel, The Fountainhead.
Although Lorelai typically gets her facts a little mangled, the seemingly outrageous story she relates about him is essentially true. The woman involved wasn’t Wright’s wife, but the woman he had left his wife for and was living with in a domestic partnership that was considered scandalous at the time.
Her name was Mary “Mamah” Borthwick, a translator who had left her husband and children to be with Wright in 1909, living together since 1911 (after her divorce came through), in a house Wright built for Mamah in Spring Green, Wisconsin, called Taliesin (“shining brow” in Welsh).
In 1914, their recently-hired servant Julian Carlton, a man from Barbados who was mentally unstable, set fire to their house and murdered seven people with an axe as they fled the burning structure. The dead included Mamah Borthwick, her two visiting children, aged 8 and 12, a gardener, a draftsman, a workman, and the son of Wright’s carpenter. Carlton attempted suicide straight after the attack, and starved himself to death in jail despite receiving medical attention.
Julian Carlton never did give a motive for his actions, but there’s some evidence that he had disputes with the workmen, and that he knew he was about to lose his job. There’s no evidence that it had anything to do with Mamah Borthwick herself, and the victims, apart from Borthwick and her children, were not dinner guests, but workmen employed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The devastated Frank Lloyd Wright rebuilt the house in Mamah’s honour, but it burned down again in 1925 after being hit with a lightning storm. It was rebuilt again, and this third version of Taliesin is now open for tours and events.
RORY: Think about something else … Something disgusting that will take your appetite away.
LORELAI: Ari Fleischer?
RICHARD: Ari Fleischer is our nation’s mouthpiece, young lady.
Lawrence Ari Fleischer (born 1960), media consultant and political aide who served as the press secretary for President George W. Bush from 2000 to 2003. He was a prominent advocate for the Iraq War.
LORELAI: Hey, unh, Luke, uh, we need a couple of donuts, and, uh, some of those extra legs Heather Mills is sending over to Croatia.
Heather Mills (born 1968), English former model, businesswoman, and activist. She came to public attention in 1993 when her left leg had to be amputated below the knee after a motorcycle accident. However, she continued to model while wearing a prosthetic limb.
Mills set up a trust which sent prosthetic limbs to people (mostly children) who had lost limbs stepping on landmines. Because she went through several prosthetic legs while her stump healed, she also had the idea of delivering discarded prosthetic limbs to amputees in Croatia, the first ones arriving in 1994. They weren’t really “extra legs”, and they weren’t always legs either.
She married rock star Paul McCartney in 2000. They divorced acrimoniously in 2008.
JACKSON: Does anyone here understand that a man has a right not to have his personal life debated in a public forum? I am not Winona Ryder.
Winona Ryder, professional name of Winona Horowitz (born 1971), actress. Her first role was in Lucas (1986), and she came to attention in Beetlejuice (1988). She rose to prominence with major roles in quirky films such asHeathers (1989), Mermaids (1990), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Reality Bites (1994), and Girl, Interrupted(1999). She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2000.
After a performance in the critically panned Mr Deeds (2002), he career went into a decline for a while; at this time, her most recent film was the minor hit Simone, which had come out the preceding summer. Her career recovered in 2009, and since 2016 she has starred in the Netflix series, Stranger Things.
Ryder’s high-profile relationship with actor Johnny Depp from 1989 to 1993 made her easy tabloid fodder, as did her 2001 arrest for shoplifting, accused of stealing more than $5000 worth of designer clothing from Saks. Ryder explained she was clinically depressed and using painkilling drugs at the time. Sentenced in December 2002, she had to serve 480 hours of community service, and pay $3700 in fines, as well as paying Saks $6355 in restitution. This what Jackson is referring to – as it’s only a month before the verdict, the media would have been in a frenzy by this stage.
[Picture shows Ryder during her court case in 2002]
[Jess and Shane walk across the dance floor to the bleachers]
LORELAI: Well, look who’s suddenly interested in dance.
RORY: Yeah, he’s a regular Martha Graham.
Martha Graham (1894-1991), modern dancer and choreographer. Her style, the Graham Technique, is still taught worldwide. Founded in 1926, the Martha Graham School in New York City is the oldest school of dance in the US.
ANDREW: [in background] You went out with Liam Neeson! Are you kidding me?
William “Liam” Neeson (born 1952), actor from Northern Ireland. He began his career in the Belfast theatre scene, and his first film role was in Excalibur (1981). He rose to prominence playing the title role in Schindler’s List(1993), starred in dramas such as Nell(1994) and provided the narration for Everest (1998). In November 2002, his most recent films were Stars Wars: Attack of the Clones and K-19: The Widowmaker, although Gangs of New York was just about to come out. He has received numerous honours, including an OBE in 2000.
Liam Neeson was married to actress Natasha Richardson in 1994, a marriage which lasted until her death in 2009. Presumably, Andrew’s dance partner went out with Liam Neeson prior to his marriage (or prior to him meeting Richardson, which took place in 1993).
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 