Typhoid Mary

RORY: But … what’s wrong with her [Madeline]?
LOUISE: Nothing’s wrong with her, Mary.
RORY: Mary? Oh no, not this Virgin Mary thing again.
LOUISE: Not Virgin. Typhoid.

Typhoid Mary was the name given to the Irish-born American Mary Mallon (1869-1938), the first identified person in the United States to be a carrier of typhoid fever without displaying any symptoms. She is believed to have infected an estimated 51 people, at least three of whom died, while working as a cook. As she used fake identities and was able to give authorities the slip several times, the numbers could be far higher, with some estimating that she may have killed over 50 people.

Mary spent the last 23 years of her life in forced quarantine, as she refused to stop working as a cook, even after being told she was a carrier of disease – she would not accept it. Typhoid Mary is a name given to anyone who unknowingly spreads disease or other undesirable traits.

Louise means that they intend to “quarantine” Rory by ignoring her, showing that she and Madeline are loyal to Paris, even when she is being unfair.

Winchester Mystery House

LORELAI: And you just need to give this situation [with Rachel] a fair chance.
LUKE: I know.
LORELAI: And that starts with ceasing work on the Winchester Mystery House here.

The Winchester Mystery House is a mansion in San Jose, California that was built as the home of Sarah Winchester, the wealthy widow of the firearm magnate William Wirt Winchester, the treasurer of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.

Constructed between 1884 and Sarah’s death in 1922, the house is rumoured to be haunted by the ghosts of all those killed by Winchester rifles, with tabloids of the day claiming that Sarah intended the house to be used as a refuge for their restless spirits (although other rumours said that she tried to ward off their spirits by building the house). Her biographer finds no evidence to support either claim.

Built without an architect, the house is very large and has many oddities, such as stairs that lead nowhere, and windows overlooking other rooms of the house. Some of the more bizarre curiosities may have been added after Sarah’s death to make the house seem more eccentric, while others may be due to the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. The Winchester Mystery House is privately owned, and operates as a tourist attraction.

Lorelai connects the lengthy and haphazard building of the Winchester Mystery House to the work that Luke is doing on her home.

Sarah Winchester was originally from New Haven, Connecticut, so this reference links the state that Gilmore Girls is set in with the state that it is filmed in.

Amusingly, Jared Padalecki, who played Dean Forester in Gilmore Girls, later went on to play Sam Winchester in Supernatural, with his surname chosen in honour of the Winchester Mystery House. Sam’s brother is named Dean – their first names are a nod to Sal and Dean from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, previously mentioned.

Sad Lonely Guys (Natural Loners)

LORELAI: Lee Harvey Oswald.
LUKE: John Muir.
LORELAI: The Unabomber.
LUKE: Henry David Thoreau.

Lorelai and Luke disagree about the romantic ideal of the male loner, with Lorelai seeing them as sad, lonely misanthropes, and Luke as mystical hermits of the wilderness. Luke sees himself as the latter, while Lorelai is worried he could be the former.

Lee Harvey Oswald (1939-1963) was an American ex-Marine and Marxist defector to the Soviet Union, described as quiet and withdrawn. According to four federal investigations, he assassinated President John F. Kennedy in 1963; there is a strong public belief that he didn’t act alone. Oswald was murdered by nightclub owner Jack Ruby while he was being transferred from the city gaol to the county gaol, and never stood trial or gave testimony.

John Muir (1838-1914) [pictured] was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States. His essays and books about nature have inspired millions, and his activism helped preserve Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, and other wilderness areas. He co-founded The Sierra Club, a prominent conservation organisation, and he has many things named in his honour, including the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada, and the John Muir Way in Scotland. He is known as “Father of the National Parks”, and has been described as a patron saint of the environmental movement. As a young man, Muir spent many years hiking alone in the wilderness, but in middle age he married and had children, although still needing to spend time in the wilderness to refresh his spirit.

Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, and previously discussed.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American author, poet, naturalist, and philosopher whose writings are early examples of environmentalism, and who advocated hiking, canoeing, and the preservation of wilderness (although when he actually went deep into the wilds, he came back with a new appreciation for civilisation). Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, or, Life in the Woods, which describes living a simple life in natural surrounds. It is based on a period of over two years that Thoreau spent living in a wooden cabin near Walden Pond among woods near Concord, Massachusetts. The book is both a memoir, and a spiritual quest to discover a better way to live. It tells of how Thoreau managed to enjoy his solitude in the woods, but also the companions that he met, and the friends who came to visit him, and how he enjoyed that too.

That Luke selects Muir and Thoreau as his models of loners, one who married and had a family, and the other who enjoyed friendship and companionship, suggests that he does not wish to be completely alone or isolated in life.

Judy Garland and Courtney Love

MADELINE: So I’ve decided I’m now completely into Judy Garland. Did you see the TV movie? Pretty intense.
LOUISE: I think they used my mother’s medicine cabinet in that.
MADELINE: She was the Courtney Love of her day.

Judy Garland, born Frances Gumm (1922-1969) was an American singer, actress, and television hostess. She began performing in vaudeville as a child, and signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer as a teenager; she made more than two dozen movies with them, including The Wizard of Oz in 1939, where she starred as Dorothy Gale.

After being released from her contract, she went on to have a highly successful career as a singer, and hosted The Judy Garland Show. She received numerous accolades, including a Juvenile Academy Award, a Cecil B. Mille Lifetime Achievement Award at the Golden Globes, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Despite her great success as a performer, the pressure of becoming a star so early in life affected her physical and mental health, and her self-image was poor as she had received so much criticism from movie executives, who thought she was unattractive. As an adult, she suffered from alcohol and substance abuse, as well as financial instability. She died of an accidental dose of sleeping pills, aged 47.

The “TV movie” that Madeline mentions is probably Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, a two-part, four-hour miniseries directed by Robert Allan Ackerman, and based on the 1998 book Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir, written by Lorna Luft, Garland’s daughter. The miniseries starred Judy Davis as the adult Judy Garland, and Davis received both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her performance. The miniseries was first shown on TV in late February 2001, so Madeline has been “completely into” Judy Garland for around two months.

Louise’s comment suggests that her mother, the mysterious adulteress, also has a problem with addiction to prescription medication.

Courtney Love (born Courtney Harrison in 1964) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and artist. She gained recognition as the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band Hole, formed in 1989, and is perhaps best known for her personal life following her marriage to Kurt Cobain, front man for the grunge rock band Nirvana. She has been very open about her struggles with drug addiction, including to heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, and prescription drugs such as Rohypnol.

Apart from both having problems with substance abuse, there is no comparison between the lifetime as a major star that Judy Garland had, and Courtney Love’s career, which makes Madeline’s comment seem ignorant, and disrespectful to Garland, that she’s supposedly “completely into”.

Furthermore, Love’s numerous addictions have led to several legal cases, often including assaulting others or disorderly conduct, while Garland’s substance abuse brought more personal misery. Love has declared herself clean since 2007.

PJ Harvey

TRISTAN: You know what these are? (holds up two tickets)
RORY: They look like tickets.
TRISTAN: To PJ Harvey.
RORY: Wow, you have good taste. I’ll give you that.
TRISTAN: You’re into PJ Harvey, right?
RORY: Yeah, how’d you know?

Polly Jean Harvey, known as PJ Harvey (born 1969) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, writer, and poet, primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, although she can play a wide array of instruments. Beginning her career with band Automatic Diamini, she formed the PJ Harvey Trio, and released the critically-acclaimed debut album Dry.

After another album, the trio split up and Harvey embarked on a solo career, releasing To Bring You My Love in 1995 to universal acclaim and commercial success. PJ Harvey’s relationship with Nick Cave inspired his ballad Into My Arms, and she also has the dark and “gloomy” kind of lyrics which we know Rory loves.

In 2001, PJ Harvey was the support act for Irish rock band U2 on their Elevation tour through Europe and the United States; Hartford was one of the cities on their itinerary. This seems to be the “ticket to PJ Harvey” that Tristan has bought to entice Rory into a date.

Siamese Twins

TRISTAN: I did mine [my locker] up.
RORY: Yeah, I saw that. The naked picture of the Siamese twins is particularly classy.

Siamese twins is the former name for conjoined twins – identical twins who are born fused together. The most famous pair of conjoined twins was Chang and Eng Bunker [pictured], who were born in Siam (now Thailand) in the 19^th century. Because of the conditions’s rarity, conjoined twins were called Siamese twins after Chang and Eng for some time.

Although it is sometimes possible to separate conjoined twins, such surgery carries significant risks, and can even be fatal. Because of this, some twins choose to remain conjoined, and in such cases, quality of life can be better than you might imagine.

“The lead singer of Blur”

RORY: You swear? On the life of the lead singer of Blur?
LANE: On the soul of Nico, I swear to you that I have not seen Dean with another girl.

The lead singer of the rock band Blur is Damon Albarn (born 1968), an English singer, songwriter, musician, and producer. Blur’s 1991 debut album was Leisure, and they received critical acclaim for Modern Life is Rubbish (1993), Parklife (1994), and The Great Escape (1994), while their 1997 self-titled album brought them mainstream success. Blur went on hiatus in 2003, but reunited in 2009, and are still recording.

Damon Albarn founded the virtual group Gorillaz in 1998, and released their self-titled debut album in March 2001, to worldwide success. That was about two months before this episode aired, but it’s not clear whether Lane and Rory have heard of it.

The singer Nico, one of Lane’s favourite musical artists, if not her her very favourite, has been earlier discussed. Lane swears on Nico’s soul to make it clear how very serious she is – Nico is obviously more valued by her than Damon Albarn.

Peter Frampton

RORY: I miss the old me too.
LANE: And I’ve been feeling bad for the new Rory.
RORY: Well, she’s staging a comeback.
LANE: And may it be more successful than Peter Frampton’s.

Peter Frampton (born 1950) is a British-American rock musician, singer, songwriter, producer, and guitarist. Beginning his career in bands Humble Pie, and The Herd, his breakout album was the 1976 live release Frampton Comes Alive!, which brought him international success. Frampton is known for his hit songs such as Breaking All the Rules, Baby I Love Your Way, and I’m in You, which have become staples on classic rock radio.

After his early success, his career seemed to falter, especially after he suffered a serious car accident in 1978, and lost all his guitars in a plane crash. Peter Frampton actually tried several “comebacks”, with his 1986 album Premonitions bringing mild success, and his 1991 tour with former bandmate Steve Marriott doing well – unfortunately, Marriott unexpectedly returned to England, and was killed in a house fire less than 24 hours later.

Lane is probably talking about 1995, when Peter Frampton released Frampton Comes Alive! II, containing live versions of his solo work from the 1980s and ’90s. Despite heavy marketing and a DVD release to accompany it, it didn’t sell well.

Peter Frampton has continued recording and touring, and won a Grammy Award for his 2007 album Fingerprints. As well as working with other musicians such as David Bowie and Ringo Starr, he has made many media appearances on television, and played himself on The Simpsons and Family Guy.

“Turning letters as a profession”

LANE: What I wanted to say was, “Janie Fertman, you are a vacuous bimbo who will be turning letters as a profession one day. And the only way you’ll know which letter to turn is when it dings and lights up.”

Lane is referring to the television game show Wheel of Fortune, which has aired since 1975. The hostess of the show turns letters so that contestants can solve word puzzles based on the guessing game of Hangman; the hostess only turns the letter when it gives a “ding” noise and lights up. Since 1982 the hostess has been Vanna White.

Margot Kidder

RORY: I was sleeping through it [Luke working on their house]!
LORELAI: It had to have woken you up.
RORY: No, my insane mother Margot Kidder Gilmore woke me up.

Margot Kidder (born 1948) is a Canadian-born American actress who has had roles in a number of horror and science-fiction films and television series, including The Amityville Horror, previously discussed.

Kidder was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After an extremely stressful event where she lost three years work due to a computer virus, she had a widely publicised manic episode in 1996, in which she disappeared for four days, was found in a distressed state in someone’s backyard, and placed in psychiatric care. Her career slowed down after this episode, but during the 2000s it picked up again, and no other manic episodes have ever been reported.

UPDATE: Margot Kidder passed away on May 13 2018.