Tag: Places

Attica

LUKE: And even if he does stay, it’ll be only for another year, and then he’ll go off to college or Attica or whatever, and it’ll just be me again.

Attica Correctional Facility, a maximum security state prison located in the town of Attica, New York. Constructed in the 1930s, it has held some of the most dangerous convicts of the times. Prisoners are often here because of disciplinary problems in other institutions.

Some of its past infamous inmates include serial killer David Berkowitz “Son of Sam”, and Mark Chapman, the assassin of John Lennon (both now held elsewhere). Ironically, John Lennon and Yoko Ono released a 1972 song called “Attica State”, lamenting the loss of life in the 1971 Attica State prison riots, as well as the poor living conditions and humans rights abuses in the US prison system. It appears on the album Some Time in New York City.

This is a very harsh comment from Luke about Jess, even as a joke. Before Jess arrived, Luke seemed to think he was nothing more than a slightly wayward teen only in need of a stable home. After six months, he seems to think it’s a toss-up whether Jess will go to college or prison (perhaps under Lorelai’s influence, who was saying that before she even met Jess). In fact, Jess will do neither.

Interestingly, the historic region of Attica in ancient Greece was the location of the city of Athens, a centre for learning and culture during its Golden Age. Jess will end up working in a job where his mind is put to good use. He’ll also live in an American city with a Greek name!

“White trash Hearst Castle”

LORELAI: I’ve never seen so much stuff. It looks like a white trash Hearst Castle in here.

Hearst Castle, estate of media magnate William Randolph Hearst, previously discussed.

Note Lorelai’s shocking implication to Luke that his nephew is “white trash”, said while Jess is just in the other room. Lorelai has said some truly awful things about Jess, a troubled teenager who is the nephew of a close friend. This isn’t even the worst one.

Historical Places

RICHARD: There are a lot of nice historical places up there [in Boston].
CHRISTOPHER: Something historical in our price range would be perfect.

Richard might be thinking of the historic Back Bay and Beacon Hill neighbourhoods in Boston, famous for their rows of Victorian brownstone terrace houses. Such brownstones can cost millions today, and no wonder Christopher is quick to qualify it as “in our price range”.

When we eventually see Christopher and Sherry’s apartment in Boston, it does look like it’s supposed to be a historic brownstone-ish sort of building, but in a retail/dining area, so presumably cheaper. (It’s just filmed on the Warner Bros lot, it’s not a real apartment).

French Lick, Indiana

RICHARD: Everyone thinks that traveling on business is so glamorous but what they don’t realize is that the business traveler never gets to see the places he visits. My last trip to Rome, I spent the whole four days in a conference room by the airport. I might as well have been in French Lick, Indiana.

French Lick is a small town of less than 2000 people in Indiana. It was originally a French trading post built near a salt lick, hence its odd name. It was a spa town in the 19th century, and by the early twentieth century, was known for its casinos, which attracted celebrities. Although its glory days are behind it, it still has a historic hotel resort with a casino and excellent golf facilities.

Litchfield

LORELAI: So where’d this business trip take you?
CHRISTOPHER: Your neck of the woods, actually. I’m in the Litchfield area.

Litchfield is a historic town in Connecticut with a population of around 8000 (about the size of Stars Hollow). This comment seems to place Stars Hollow in Litchfield County, the location of Washington Depot, Milford Green, and Woodbury, which can be seen as inspirations for the town and its setting.

What business Christopher could be doing there is a bit of a headscratcher – he works for a Boston company that helps struggling technology companies trim their resources, presumably softening them up for corporate takeovers. Litchfield County is a rural area with a low population density, farmland, and small towns: what tech company could possibly be located there?

I can only think he is actually in Hartford or New York or something, or the whole thing is a lie. Perhaps Christopher has actually lost his job?

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.

Miami Beach Blue

SOOKIE: And I like your living room. Though that house across the street has sort of that creepy Miami Beach blue, which means that during the day you really can’t look out your window, but at night it’s not so bad.

Miami Beach is a coastal city in Florida, located on natural and artificial islands which separate the beach from Miami. It has a population of around 83 000, and has been one of the most popular resorts in the US since the early twentieth century.

I’m not exactly sure what Sookie means by “Miami Beach blue”, but Miami Beach has a famous Art Deco Heritage District, the largest collection of Art Deco architecture in the world. Many of the buildings are painted or picked out in pale blue, in line with the city’s beachy aesthetic, and she may be thinking of that.

I don’t know why this is considered “creepy”. All I can think of, and it’s really quite a stretch, is that the house in the famous 1991 “Ghostbusters” case of Stambovsky vs Ackley was painted pale blue.

The legal case involved a woman named Helen Ackley selling her house in Nyack, New York, to a man named Jeffrey Stambovsky, without disclosing to him that the house was reputedly haunted – he refused to sign the contract when he found out about the haunting. The courts ruled in favour of Mr Stambovsky.

The only reason I am even mentioning it is because the film Ghostbusters was referenced in the same scene, the mentalist Kreskin, previously discussed, was among those who tried to buy the house, and because when Helen Ackley eventually sold the house to a different buyer, she moved to Florida, so it all seems to fit, in some extremely nebulous way.

It seems possible that Sookie took note of the pale blue house when the story broke nationally, and for ever after, thought any kind of pale blue house was somehow spooky.

A Plane That Looks Like Shamu

LORELAI: Dean, now that you’re done with that, will you build me a plane? One that looks like Shamu?

Shamu is the name given to various killer whales (orcas) at Seaworld parks. The first Shamu was captured in 1965 and died in 1971. Her name means “friend of Namu” – Namu was a male orca captured in 1965, named after a fishing port in British Columbia, Canada, close to his site of capture. The whales named Shamu were always the “star” of the killer whale show.

In 1988, Southwest Airlines designed a plane called Shamu One, a Boeing 737 painted to look like a killer whale, to promote travel to Seaworld in Texas.

Southwest Airlines ended their relationship with Seaworld in 2014, after the release of the 2013 documentary Black Fish focused on the mistreatment of orcas in captivity. In 2016, Seaworld discontinued its orca breeding program.