“I paraphrased Proust”

RORY: Well, having company is about making sacrifices.

LORELAI: Martha Stewart?

RORY: I paraphrased Proust.

Rory refers to Marcel Proust, previously discussed, the author of In Search of Lost Time, a novel in seven volumes.

I’m not sure which part of Proust Rory is paraphrasing from. There are so many times that the author reflects on sacrifices made for other people, and for the benefit of society that it is difficult to choose. However, this sentence from The Guermantes Way, Vol 3 of the novel, stood out for me as possibly reflecting Rory’s feelings:

The same familiar spirit represented to Mme. de Guermantes the social duties of duchesses, of the foremost among them, that was, who like herself were multi-millionaires, the sacrifice to boring tea, dinner and evening parties of hours in which she might have read interesting books, as unpleasant necessities like rain, which Mme. de Guermantes accepted, letting play on them her biting humour, but without seeking in any way to justify her acceptance of them.

Rory also submits to social duties she finds boring, in a way Lorelai doesn’t, but like Mme. de Guermantes, she would probably prefer to be reading “interesting books”, and uses her sense of humour as a coping mechanism to get through them.

That does sound a lot like Rory’s attitude, and if so, suggests she thinks of entertaining her father and his girlfriend as a boring necessity. A big change from the previous season, when she was so thrilled to see Christopher in Stars Hollow. Is it just Sherry making the difference, or is some of the gilt coming off Christopher already?

If this is the source, it means Rory has read at least the first three volumes of In Search of Lost Time.

Alain Ducasse

CHRISTOPHER: I hear you’re the greatest chef after Alain Ducasse.
SOOKIE: After Alain Ducasse? Who – who said after?

Alain Ducasse (born 1956), French-born chef from Monaco. He operates a number of restaurants, including Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, in London. In 2000 he opened the Alain Ducasse restaurant at the Essex Hotel in New York City. He was the first chef to have three restaurants that had been awarded three Michelin stars in three cities (London, Paris, New York). In 2012, he held 21 Michelin stars, making him the second-highest ranked chef in the world. In 2013 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award from Restaurant magazine.

Pinteresque

RORY: Sometimes I will add a dramatic pause to prove a point, undercutting my wpm.
PARIS: Let’s not harbor any Pinteresque fantasies here, Rory.

Paris is referring to playwright Harold Pinter (1930-2008), one of the most influential modern British dramatists, with a career spanning more than 50 years. His best known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964), and The Betrayal (1978), each of which he adpated for the screen. He wrote several other screenplays, and directed or acted in radio, stage, television, and film productions of his own and others’ works. He received over 50 awards and honours, including the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007.

To say that something is “Pinteresque” means that is characteristic of the dialogue in a Harold Pinter play, which (among other things) contains long, brooding pauses. “The Pinter pause” is considered a trademark of his style.

Willie Nelson

RORY: I talk normally.
PARIS: For the average Willie Nelson roadie, yes, but not for a winning debate team member.

Willie Nelson (born 1933), country music singer, actor, and activist. He gained critical success with his 1973 album Shotgun Willie, then both critical and commercial success with his follow up albums in 1975 and 1978, making him one of the best known country music stars, and a leading figure in the outlaw country subgenre.

He’s appeared in more than 30 films, co-authored several books, and been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalisation of marijuana. I think it is the activism for marijuana that Paris is thinking of – as if all his roadies will be stoned and speaking in stereotypical “stoner” voices.

Kevorkian

PARIS: The debate’s Friday and we need more preparation.
RORY: More preparation? Paris – no two people know more about assisted suicide than the two of us. Kevorkian called today for a couple of tips.

Murad “Jack” Kevorkian (928-2011), pathologist and euthanasia proponent. He publicly championed a terminally-ill patient’s right to die by doctor-assisted suicide. He said that he assisted at least 130 people to die, many of whom were not terminally ill, and some of whom had no physical ailment at all. He was convicted of murder in 1999, serving eight years in prison, and was released in 2007. The media often dubbed him “Dr. Death”. There was support for his cause, and he helped set the platform for reform to the law.

Two Fat Ladies

LORELAI: There’s always something on. Uh! Struck gold!
RORY: Not Two Fat Ladies again.
LORELAI: Why not? They’re brilliant.

Two Fat Ladies, British cooking show originally broadcast on BBC2 from 1996 to 1999. The show centred on the titular ladies, Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson, travelling around the UK on a Triumph Thunderbird motorcycle – registration N88 TFL (88 is “two fat ladies” in bingo calling, the origin of the show’s name) – and a Watsonian Jubilee GP-700 “doublewide” sidecar. Paterson was the one driving the motorcycle, with Dickson Wright in the sidecar.

Two Fat Ladies was frequently repeated in the US on the Food Network, and the Cooking Channel. The show came to an end, because as Lorelai notes, one of them passed away. This was Jennifer Paterson, who died of lung cancer in 1999, one month after diagnosis. Clarissa Dickson Wright died in 2014, from pneumonia.

Rory, who is apparently tired of watching all of the repeats of the show pleads, “Can’t we find some other really fat people to watch?”, to which Lorelai responds, “Wow, that sounded a little insensitive” (really, Lorelai? But you’ve got the sweetest kid in the world!).

Fat jokes? Insensitive comments? Without even looking, I knew this episode must have been written by Daniel Palladino.

Cooperstown

LORELAI: Schmitty’s over the hill, he’s washed up, put him in Cooperstown.

Cooperstown is a historic village in New York state of less than 2000 people. It is best known as the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which opened in 1944 on farmland which had once belonged to James Fenimore Cooper (his father William Cooper was the town’s founder). The name Cooperstown is now synonymous with the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Cooperstown once laid claim to being the birthplace of baseball, but this was universally discounted by baseball historians. Nevertheless, it is a twin town of Windsor in Canada, which lays claim to being the birthplace of ice hockey.

Mike Schmidt (“Schmitty”) did get elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, several years after his career ended.

Even though Lorelai was playing bagel hockey and choosing a goalie, she has switched metaphors as if playing baseball. This is no doubt because Scott Patterson, who plays Luke, is a former baseball player.

Schmitty

LORELAI: Goalie for the bagel hockey team?

RORY: And bump Schmitty?

LORELAI: Schmitty’s over the hill, he’s washed up …

If Rory is referring to a real person named Schmitty, rather than an imaginary one, it can only be former baseball star Mike Schmidt (born Michael Schmidt in 1949), often referred to as “Schmitty”. He played 18 seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies between 1972 and 1989. A twelve-time All-Star and three-time winner of the Most Valuable Player Award, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995. Sporting News named him Player of the Decade for the 1980s.

I feel as if Rory made up an imaginary Schmitty, but Lorelai recognised it as the name of a baseball player, hence why Lorelai rapidly jumps to baseball references.

Melba Toast

MRS. KIM: Lane, come down for your snack!
LANE: It’s tea and melba toast time, gotta go.

Melba toast is dry, crisp, thinly sliced toast which has been grilled twice, often served with soup or salad, or topped with pate. It is named after Australian opera star Dame Nellie Melba, born Helen Mitchell (1861-1931), and thought to date to 1897, when the singer was very ill, and this thin toast became the staple of her diet. The toast was created for her by French chef Auguste Escoffier. You can buy them in boxes, just like crackers.

Lane’s snack is therefore very dry and uninteresting, just a cut above dry bread and water.

Dr Dre Ankle Bracelet

RORY: So I guess you’re still grounded over that whole Henry thing, huh?
LANE: Are you kidding? It’s the mother of all groundings. My mom’s done everything but slap a Dr. Dre ankle bracelet on me.

Dr. Dre, professional name of Andre Young (born 1965), rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He found fame as a member of the gangsta rap group N.W.A., became president of Death Row Records, and brought out a Grammy-winning single “Let It Ride”, from his debut 1992 album, The Chronic. In 1993 he left Death Row Records to establish his own label, Aftermath Entertainment, which signed Eminem, and his most recent album at this point was the 1999 solo album, 2001.

He committed a number of violent crimes in the 1990s. In 1992, he was found guilty of breaking the jaw of aspiring rap producer, Damon Thomas, and placed under electronic house arrest for 90 days with a tagging device around his ankle. He served a further 30 days after pleading guilty to the battery of a police officer during a brawl in a New Orleans hotel lobby. There was another period of house arrest in 1994 after leading police on a 90 mph car chase with a blood alcohol reading double the legal limit.

Amusingly, Dr. Dre brought out a line of highly successful headphones called Beats in 2008, so that Lane’s comment now sounds as if it is referring to a piece of technology made by Dr. Dre, rather than for him.