Tag: Reality Check

Midnight at the Oasis

This is the song which plays when Rory looks at the clock at Dwight’s house, while putting the African violets back. It’s a woven basketwork clock that a china figurine pops out of when the hour strikes.

“Midnight at the Oasis” is a 1973 song written by David Nichtern. It was recorded by Maria Muldaur for her self-titled debut album, and released as a single in 1974. It peaked at #6 in the US, and was the #13 song of the year, becoming one of Muldaur’s most popular concert songs.

“Midnight at the Oasis” is about an offer of a love affair in a fantasy desert location, and is considered to be one of the most sensual songs of the 1970s, apparently inspiring numerous sexual encounters. It seems as if Dwight has more than just board games in mind now he’s moved to Stars Hollow! Perhaps he’s even set his sights on Lorelai – the gossipy Babette would have told him Lorelai was single.

The clock reads eight o’clock at this point, providing the name of the episode, “Eight O’clock at the Oasis”. I can’t see how it can be 8 am – Rory is meant to be at school in five minutes! And although they were running slightly late, Lorelai still thought they could have breakfast at Luke’s, as long as she drove Rory to school. Why do the Gilmore girls seem to have all the time in the world sometimes, and at others, time just suddenly disappears? They weren’t at Dwight’s for that long.

David Bowie Concert

LORELAI: Well, first, he asked me to the David Bowie concert next week.

David Bowie’s 2002 concert tour was the Heathen tour, promoting his latest album Heathen, which came out in June that year. It opened in New York City on June 11, before going back and forth through Europe and the US.

By October 11, Bowie was back in New York, with the final concert in the city being Sunday October 20 at the Beacon Theatre on Broadway [pictured]. That is the last possible date Lorelai and Peyton could have gone to his concert – and if that was the week after their first date, it suggests that this scene takes place around the second week of October.

There is no way that this tallies with the timeline within the show, way too much has happened for it only to be early October, so it’s probably best to think of it as a fictional concert date. On the rare occasions when real world events are mentioned as impinging on the action, they rarely match up exactly with the dates within the show. But I think it is safe to say it is now late October, so they only seem to be running about two weeks behind the real world.

Schnauzer

RORY: Dogs started barking.

LORELAI: Because they heard about the garlic incident, and no one likes getting screwed, Rory, not even a Schnauzer.

A Schnauzer is a breed of dog which originated in medieval Germany – its name means “snouter” in German, as the dog has a distinctive bearded snout. Originally bred as a ratter and guard dog, schnauzers are intelligent, independent, protective, and energetic. They need a lot of training and exercise. Schnauzers come in different sizes, and have a shaggy coat, usually black, grey, or salt and pepper. As happens in this episode, schnauzers tend to bark a lot, especially if they feel threatened – Lorelai must have sounded very loud and angry.

Luke Freaks Out Over Breastfeeding

LUKE: Why, why do they do this? This is a public place, people are eating here … This cannot be sanitary … When did that become acceptable? In the old days, a woman would never consider doing that in public. They’d go find a barn or a cave or something. I mean, it’s indecent. This is a diner not a peep show!

Luke is horrified when a woman nurses her baby in the diner. I have trouble accepting this “caveman” version of Luke, when he was depicted as intelligent and progressive in Season 1 – sometimes it feels as if the show couldn’t decide whether Luke was smart or stupid, progressive or reactionary.

He did tell Lorelai that he didn’t like small children very much, especially their messy, sticky side, and perhaps this is why he is having problems with seeing a baby fed, but it ends up being a judgement on the mother for putting on a “peep show” – therefore sexualising her need to feed her child, which is pretty creepy of Luke.

In Connecticut, women have been legally entitled to breastfeed in public since 1997, and it is prohibited for anyone to restrict or limit their right to do so. This includes restaurants and diners, so Luke has had five years to adjust to the law. As a responsible business owner, Luke would know of his legal obligations, and I don’t think he would behave like this, even if he did secretly feel a little uncomfortable.

As another mirroring scene, Jess is also shown being unable to handle seeing a woman breastfeed her baby. It’s not like this entire scene didn’t age well – it was outdated and unfunny at the time of first broadcast.

Schnitzel

LORELAI: And the rabbit says, ‘How about that schnitzel!’

A schnitzel is a thin slice of meat that has been pounded into a flat shape using a meat tenderiser. It is usually breaded before being fried. The word is German, and means “slice” or “little slice”. Wiener schnitzel is a popular Viennese dish made of veal, traditionally garnished with a slice of lemon and served with potato salad or boiled potatoes with parsley and butter. It dates to the 19th century, and is one of the national dishes of Austria. There are numerous international versions of the dish.

The punchline to Lorelai’s alleged joke (Rory doesn’t think it is one) appears to be original.

Maxim

LANE: This is the most radical thing a Kim has done since my cousin Nam got caught reading Maxim at summer camp.

Maxim, a men’s magazine launched in the UK by Felix Dennis in 1995, but based in New York City since 1997. It’s known for its photographs of prominent singers, actors, and female models. It has been criticised for its sexual objectification of women, and publishes a Hot 100 List – in 2002, #1 was actress Jennifer Garner, the first time someone had debuted in the top spot.

Nam is a very popular Korean boy’s name, which means “south”.

Lane’s Purple Hair

Lane’s purple hair is very obviously a cheap wig – it doesn’t fit properly and looks a different style to her real hair. The whole hair dyeing plot in this episode is not possible in real life. You can’t bleach black hair blonde, then dye it purple all in the matter of a couple of hours (it would take days). It also isn’t possible that Mrs Kim wouldn’t have smelled the bleach and hair dye while working in the antiques store on the ground floor.

However, none of this really matters much, as after a very short celebration of her bold new look, Lane has a crisis of confidence, and insists that Rory dye her hair black, so that her mother won’t find out what she did. This is, of course, only adds to the implausibility of the episode.

G.E.D.

LORELAI: No, technically, I didn’t drop out. I, uh, I kept going as long as I could while I got pregnant, which I would recommend to any girl. Not the getting pregnant part, obviously. Um, although, uh, if that happens, um, you know. . . it shouldn’t. I mean, it could but you should try to avoid it. . . um, anyway, uh, I got my GED, yeah.

GED, the General Educational Development tests. These are tests in four different subjects which, when passed, provide certification that the test taker has US or Canadian high school level skills. The subjects are: Mathematical Reasoning, Reasoning Through Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science. It is an alternative to the high school diploma. It is only ever referred to as the GED.

In Connecticut, a person is eligible to register for the GED tests once they are seventeen or older, and have officially withdrawn from school for at least six months. There is a test centre in Hartford (the Adult Education Center), and if the person is under 21, testing is free ($13 if over 21 or not a military veteran).

Lorelai says that she never officially dropped out of school, and kept up her studies as long as she could. However, her former school friend Mitzi said that she hadn’t seen Lorelai since she was seven months pregnant, suggesting Lorelai didn’t return to school for the new academic year in September 1984.

At the time, there was a high school for teen mothers in Hartford that Lorelai could have attended, but I’m sure Emily would never have permitted that (the shame! The social disgrace! Lorelai having to mix with working class girls! The horror, the horror!). Lorelai said that her “conservative high school” wouldn’t let her graduate while nursing a baby, so she doesn’t seem to have found an alternative.

Lorelai was eligible to take the GED in 1985, and it would have been easy for her to access the test when she lived in Hartford. I’m guessing she took the GED while she still lived with her parents.

By the way, Lorelai was far from unusual for being a teenage mother trying to balance motherhood and education. By the early 1990s, one quarter of all births in Hartford were to a teen mother, and in 1991, more girls in the city got pregnant than graduated high school.

Butch Danes

[Luke walks over to her. His high school picture is hanging in the display case with the caption “State High Hurdles Champion: 1985 – Butch Danes”]

LUKE: For the love of . . . what’s that doing there?

Here we discover Luke’s nickname in high school was “Butch” (a very manly nickname, best known from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid).

If Luke was seventeen in 1985, that would make him the same age as Lorelai, both of them born in 1968. If he was any younger that year, he would be younger than Lorelai, which doesn’t seem likely (it’s a stretch of plausibility that he’s the same age – Scott Patterson is almost a decade older than Lauren Graham). I don’t think he can have been eighteen, because he didn’t do his final year of high school.

Luke said he didn’t have a single positive memory from high school, yet he was a star athlete and a state hurdles champion. It can’t have been all bad. It’s definitely a lot better than what Jess has been through at school.