Footnotes to the TV series
RORY: Hey Clara. Nice, is that a Stella McCartney?
CLARA: It’s a Walmart.
Stella McCartney (born 1971), English fashion designer, and the daughter of Paul McCartney and his wife Linda, previously discussed. In 2001, she launched her own fashion house, in a joint venture with Gucci, and now has more than fifty stores around the world.
Walmart, previously discussed. There is a Walmart in Hartford where Mrs Forester could have bought Clara’s dress.
PARIS: Oh. Okay, well, I’ll get out of your way. Call if you need to talk things through, and oh – she uses the Prince version of writing. A letter U for you and a picture of an eye for an I.
The pop star Prince, previously discussed. Some of his song titles are I Would Die 4 U, U Got the Look, and Nothing Compares 2 U, a notation which became common in 1990s songs, and foreshadowed text speak. I can’t find an example of him using a picture of an eye for the letter I, but there are enough references to him doing so that I don’t think Paris is exaggerating.
DEAN: Hey Lane. Are you going to this big shindig at the inn tonight?
LANE: Yeah, I’m just trying to trick my mom into not going with me.
DEAN: How’s that coming along?
LANE: How’s that Pixies reunion coming along?
The Pixies are an American alternative rock band founded in 1986, part of the alternative rock boom of the 1990s, with a distinctive sound drawing on punk and surf rock, with often surreal song lyrics. More successful in Europe than their home country, they influenced bands such as Nirvana, Radiohead, and Smashing Pumpkins. They broke up in 1993, but became so popular after disbanding that they reunited in 2004, going on to have sell-out world tours. Lane knows enough about the contemporary music scene that she understands fans are calling for a reunion, and her comment now looks quite prescient.
LORELAI: They’re snowed in.
SOOKIE: Who’s snowed in?
LORELAI: The Bracebridge group. They’re stuck in Chicago. The dinner’s off.
In real life, December 2001 was warmer than average in Chicago, and it only snowed once, which took place close to Christmas, after the events of this episode.
The writer, Daniel Palladino, must have been thinking of the previous year – there was a terrible blizzard on Tuesday December 11 which raged for hours, with very heavy snowfalls. The storms continued on and off for the rest of the month, making it one of the heaviest snowfalls of all time for the city, an entire season’s worth.
Not being psychic, of course Palladino could only refer to a past blizzard, he didn’t know what the weather would be like in the upcoming December.
(The picture shows a plane grounded at O’Hare Airport in December 2000; flights really were cancelled).
RORY: Oh, well yeah, it can be really nice just to stay at home sometimes because you can do fun things that you normally wouldn’t have time for.
LORELAI: Yeah, like play Running Charades, and get out that Slip ‘N Slide.
Running Charades is a charades game played in teams. Each team has a list of titles (of books, movies etc) that must be acted out to a team member, who is then meant to guess what it is, before another team member runs in to guess the next charade. Whichever team finishes all their charades by guessing correctly the fastest wins the game. It was brought out as a board game in 2000, suggesting that Lorelai bought a copy.
Slip ‘N Slide is a children’s toy brought out in 1961. It’s a long strip of plastic, which when sprayed with water, becomes incredibly slippery so that a child can slide right down to the end of it. Safety warning: they are only suitable for children, there have been several cases of teenagers and adults hurting their backs or necks, or even becoming paralysed, while playing on a Slip ‘N Slide. Lorelai’s joke seems slightly cruel in that context.
The Bracebridge Dinner at the Ahwahnee Hotel serves modern gourmet food, but with a slight nod to the Renaissance in how it is labelled. Sookie’s menu seems to resemble it very closely.
Soup – Butternut squash (pumpkin) soup topped with cream (?) and rosemary
Fish – Trout
Peacock Pie – not really peacock, usually duck, capon, or quail, or even small game like rabbit. It’s usually a breast fillet wrapped in pastry.
Baron of Beef – a mostly British term for what is otherwise known as a top sirloin roast (a double sirloin). The Ahwahnee seems to serve instead a beef steak of superior cut, and so does Sookie.
Salad – usually with some sort of festive addition, such as cranberries and walnuts
Plum Pudding – prune tart (Martha Stewart has a recipe for this, perhaps Sookie used it?)
Wassail – a traditional hot mulled punch, made with spiced apple cider
LORELAI: For the Bracebridge Dinner.
JACKSON: Geez, you guys are going crazy with this dinner.
SOOKIE: Jackson, I told you, this dinner is not just about food. We are recreating an authentic 19th century meal.
LORELAI: The servers are all gonna be in period clothing, they’re gonna speak period English. Here, look at the costumes.
The Bracebridge Dinner is an annual tradition which has been held at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, California since 1927, when the hotel opened. The interior of the Ahwahnee was an inspiration for the hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s film, The Shining – a hint as to how Lorelai may have become interested in holding her own Bracebridge Dinner.
The Bracebridge Dinner is a seven-course formal gathering held in the Grand Dining Room and presented as a feast given by a Renaissance-era lord. It was inspired by the fictional Squire Bracebridge’s Yule celebration in a story from the 1820 work, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., by American author Washington Irving. Music and theatrical performances based on Irving’s story accompany the introduction of each course.
Tickets to the Bracebridge Dinner cost around $400 and are generally difficult to obtain, sometimes being awarded in a lottery system. In 1992, there were 60 000 applicants for the 1650 seats available. This could be the reason why the Trelling Paper Company from Chicago have decided to hold their own Bracebridge Dinner at the Independence Inn.
Sookie says they will be serving an authentic 19th century meal, but in fact it is a Renaissance-themed meal. There’s not that much authentic about the dinner really, however I’m pretty sure the 19th century one wasn’t either. It’s a bit of fun and frolic, not a history lesson.
MICHEL: [on phone] Yes, you can rent a car in Manhattan and return it in Hartford. That’s … that’s no problem, sir. Yes. Yes, you can return it to Bradley International. That’s … that’s very convenient.
Bradley International Airport is in the town of Windsor Locks, about fifteen minutes drive north of Hartford. Originally a World War II military airfield, it opened as a civilian international airport in 1947. It’s the major airport for the Hartford region, and the one that the characters all presumably use when they need to catch a flight anywhere.
RORY: Oh, we have to rent Godfather 3 on DVD.
LORELAI: You’re kidding.
RORY: In the audio commentary, Coppola actually defends casting Sofia.
The Godfather Part III, the 1990 crime film that is the third of the Godfather films, previously discussed. Although packaged as a trilogy, director Francis Ford Coppola himself considers the first two films a duology, and the third film as their sequel.
The film was a commercial success and received positive reviews, although it is generally regarded as a lesser work than the first two. Critics praised Al Pacino and the screenplay, but criticised the convoluted plot, and Sofia Coppola’s performance as Mary Corleone, Michael’s daughter. It is the only film in the franchise not to win any major awards, while Sofia Coppola received two Razzies for Worst Supporting Actress and Worst New Star.
Francis Ford Coppola answered his critics by writing a letter to the New York Times in 1991, and in several interviews. Sofia was not his first choice for the role, but Winona Ryder had arrived late on set so exhausted from filming Mermaids that doctors advised she be sent home to recover. With no other suitable actresses, and filming already delayed by Ryder, he decided to cast Sofia as she was the perfect age and already knew the script. Furthermore, he had originally based the character of Mary on Sofia.
In 2019 while promoting the 2020 director’s cut of the film, Francis Ford Coppola insisted that Sofia may not have been a professional actress, but she was beautiful, touching, and authentic. His defence of his daughter has remained ongoing and heartfelt – way more than just one remark on the DVD audio commentary.
It’s interesting that in an episode where Lorelai hears from Christopher, hoping to see Rory, it opens with a mention of a Godfather film, and a fond father. Not only that, it is Rory who wants to watch the film specifically so she can listen to the audio commentary of Coppola’s defence of his daughter Sofia.
LORELAI: Someone recruited him, promised him a handsome sum, financed his theatrical snowman accoutrements, so he could snatch victory away from a deserving local in order to bag the contest prize for himself.
RORY: Seems a little elaborate considering that the prize is a set of new US quarters.
A quarter is a 25 cent coin – a quarter dollar. The head of George Washington is on the obverse side, and originally, the reverse side was an American eagle.
In 1999, the US Mint began issuing commemorative quarters with a reverse which featured each of the fifty states of the US. It was the most successful coin-collecting program in history, with about half of the country’s population collecting the coins. I think this is the set of new quarters that Rory is talking about.
By late 2001, the set of quarters included Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Kentucky.
The program was completed in 2008, after which the Mint went on to do DC and US Territories, then national parks and monuments. You can buy a full set of the Fifty States coin sets for around $25 today.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 