David Letterman’s House

LORELAI: Honey, you gotta ease up on that love potion you’ve been giving him or he’s gonna start showing up at David Letterman’s house soon.

In May 1988, David Letterman was stalked by a mentally ill woman named Margaret “Peggy” Ray, who stole his car, camped on his tennis court, and repeatedly broke into his house. Her exploits gained national attention, and Letterman joked about her on his show sometimes, but without ever naming her. Ray served 34 months in prison and psychiatric hospitals for stalking Letterman, but refused to continue her medication upon her release, and went on to stalk astronaut Story Musgrove. She killed herself in 1998. Both Letterman and Musgrove expressed sympathy for her – “A sad ending to a confused life”, said a spokesman for Letterman.

Another rather distasteful joke about mental illness and suicide, and the implication that it is somehow Rory’s “fault” that Dean is behaving so obsessively. There does seem to be a slight acknowledgement here from Lorelai that Dean’s behaviour is abnormal and unhealthy.

Dean the Determined

LORELAI: Dean the determined.

An obvious play on epithets historically given to royalty – Ivan the Terrible, James the Just, Alfred the Great, Gerald the Fearless, Philip the Handsome, and so on.

There was a real royal with this epithet – Antonio the Determined [pictured], who managed to rule Portugal as Antony I for at least twenty days during a succession crisis. Although Philip II of Spain prevailed, Antonio did not gracefully admit defeat, but attempted to rule Portugal from the Azores, where he established an opposition government that clung on for three more years. He went into exile in France and England, taking the crown jewels with him.

In Antonio’s case, “determined” seems to be a polite word for “desperate”, or even “delusional”. Dean will likewise do his darnedest to grimly hang onto Rory, even when he knows he’s lost.

Bobby Fischer

PARIS: We dress up the kits with sparkles, colors, pictures of bands. Sport themes for the boys, animal pictures for the puppy and unicorn bunch, chess boards for the Bobby Fischer freaks …

Robert “Bobby” Fischer (1943-2008), American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. He was a chess prodigy, winning the 1958 US Championship at the age of 14. He withdrew from the public eye in 1975, with reports of increasingly erratic behaviour through the years.

Pointing to the Outfield

RORY: So, have a good game. Do that pointing to the outfield thing, that’s always very popular.

Rory is referring to a famous incident in baseball history, when Babe Ruth pointed towards the outfield before hitting a home run, in the fifth inning of Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, held on October 1 at Wrigley Field, Chicago.

His gesture looked as if it was promising a home run, but initially Ruth said he was simply pointing at the dugout to remind them he had one more strike. It’s also been suggested he was actually thumbing his nose at the opposing team.

Once the story hits the papers, the media-savvy Ruth went along with it. Over the years, his story became more embellished, until he was planning the home run before the game even started, while talking with his wife.

Whatever the truth, it soon became an established baseball legend, and part of American popular culture.

[Picture is the 1976 painting The Mighty Babe by Robert Thom, depicting the “called shot”]

Miss Gilmore and the Vicious Circle

RORY: Would you really have felt guilty?

LORELAI: No, but I would’ve felt guilty about not feeling guilty and you can see how that could just go on forever.

RORY: Miss Gilmore and the vicious circle.

A reference to the 1994 biographical drama film, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, directed by Alan Rudolph. It stars Jennifer Jason Leigh as the writer and critic Dorothy Parker, and depicts the members of the Algonquin Round Table, otherwise known as the Vicious Circle. The film was a critical success, but not a commercial one.

As a huge Dorothy Parker fan, of course Rory would have watched this film. Matthew Broderick is also in the cast, who is apparently one of Rory’s favourites (or at least was when she was younger).

Napoleon and Elba

LOUISE: Someone’s not taking to Elba too kindly.

PARIS: What does that mean?

LOUISE: Just that Rory’s the leader of this group, Napoleon, and you’re not.

Napoleon Bonaparte, born Napoleone di Buonaparte (1769-1821), French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution, becoming Emperor of France in the early 19^th century. He was one of the greatest military commanders in history, and his wars and campaigns are studied in military schools worldwide.

After Napoleon was forced to abdicate in 1814 he was exiled to the island of Elba, between Corsica and Italy. Louise is saying that now that Rory is leader of their group, Paris is like a great leader forced into the political wilderness.

In fact, Napoleon didn’t waste his time on Elba, improving the island with his usual energy and vision. He escaped from it nine months later and briefly took control of France again before being defeated at Waterloo. Like Napoleon, Paris is unlikely to languish in the background for too long.

[Picture shows Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David (1800)]

Mark Twain’s Marginalia

RORY: No, he didn’t vandalize it. He wrote in the margins, thoughts and stuff.

LORELAI: Like what, like play basketball, eat a sandwich – stuff like that?

RORY: No, stuff, like margin stuff. People like Mark Twain wrote in margins.

LORELAI: Pilot a steamboat, write Huckleberry Finn?

Mark Twain, author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, often mentioned. As a young man, Mark Twain trained to be a pilot on a steamboat on the Mississippi River. His pen name comes from the cry “mark twain”, meaning that the river is twelve foot deep, a safe depth for a steamboat to travel in.

Mark Twain is famed for the barbed comments he wrote in the margins of books he read – his own books, I might add. Saratoga in 1901 by Landon D. Melville seems to have drawn his ire; Twain re-named it Saratoga in 1891, or The Droolings of an Idiot, and wrote in the margin that the author was “little-minded”.

Rory’s comment may suggest that Jess’ scribblings in the margins of Howl were likewise of a sarcastic nature.

Cézanne

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations for the transition from the 19^th century to the 20^th in art, and a major influence on both Matisse and Picasso.

Richard may have taken up oil painting because it was the favoured hobby of Winston Churchill, who we know Richard admires. Churchill began in watercolours, but soon switched to oils, becoming known as a talented amateur painter.

The Romanovs

EMILY: I’ll see you for dinner tonight, Lorelai. And Luke, I’m sure I’ll see you again soon. What do you think of the Romanovs?

LUKE: They probably had it coming.

EMILY: A match made in heaven.

The House of Romanov, the reigning imperial family of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They became prominent after the first Tsar of Russia, Ivan the Terrible, married Anastasia Romanova, the first Tsarina. It is from Anastasia’s name that the family became known as the Romanovs.

The abdication of Tsar Nicholas II during the Russian Revolution on 15 March 1917 ended 304 years of Romanov rule and paved the way for the formation of the Russian Republic. In July 1918, Bolshevik officials executed Nicholas and his family.

Although Lorelai refers to their murder as “the firing squad”, they were shot and bayoneted, then the bodies taken to the forest to be stripped, buried, then mutilated with grenades to prevent identification. This is what Luke thinks they “probably had coming”.

The Romanov burial site was discovered in 1979 by an amateur sleuth, but not officially confirmed by Russia until 1989. The remains were identified by forensic and DNA analysis, assisted by British experts, and in 1998 the remains were re-interred in a state funeral in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg. In 2000, Nicholas II was canonised as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church.

After the assassination of Nicholas and his family, the remaining 47 members of the Romanov family went into exile abroad, still claiming the former Russian throne. Since 1991, the line of succession has been in dispute.

[Picture shows Nicholas II of Russia with his wife Alexandra (Alix of Hesse), his son Alexei, and four daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia].

EDIT: A date edited with the kind assistance of reader Omar.

King Tut

LUKE: My uncle, King Tut, has to take all of them to the afterlife with him!

Tutankhamun, commonly referred to as King Tut, ancient Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the 18^th Dynasty (ruled circa 1332-1323 BC). His tomb was discovered in 1922, sparking a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt. He was buried with over 5000 artefacts, with some of his treasures being exhibited around the world at various times.