Cambodia

EMILY: Won’t you have dessert?
TRIX: I once travelled to a small village in Cambodia. I did not eat dessert there either.

Cambodia is a country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It was under the control of France during the 19^th century, and became independent in 1953. Cambodian desserts are actually quite famous, but perhaps the small village Trix went to was too poor to have any dessert, or not up to Trix’s standards – as a slam to Emily, most likely the second.

Trix doesn’t like travel, but somehow made it all the way to Cambodia. Possibly her dislike for travel only came on late in life.

“Diamond pendant”

RORY: Where is she [her great-grandmother] now?
EMILY: In the living room, scratching the diamond pendant I bought her against a mirror.

A common technique in the past to test if a diamond was real or fake was to rub it against glass – if it made a scratch or scrape mark on the glass leaving the jewel untouched, then the diamond was genuine.

Many modern artificial diamonds can actually pass this test, and if you’re unlucky, it is possible to damage a real diamond rubbing it against glass, so it isn’t really helpful. It is probably going to ruin Emily and Richard’s mirror, so it’s inherently selfish as well as rude.

Miss Manners

LORELAI: You gave me a second hand present, like something you got at the junk store.
EMILY: You’re being a little dramatic. It was still in the crate.
LORELAI: You actually went, “Huh, what should I get Lorelai this year? You know what, I can’t be bothered. Let’s give her something we don’t want anymore”.
EMILY: You’re not funny.
LORELAI: What would Miss Manners say about this?

Miss Manners (born Judith Perlman in 1938, now Judith Martin) is an American journalist, author, and etiquette expert. Since 1978 she has written an advice column which is published in over 200 newspapers around the world.

Miss Manners does give her blessing to regifting, as long as the present is still new (not used), and that the recipient never finds out. She would think it quite okay that Lorelai received the unwanted hat rack from her mother still in its crate – the real rule of etiquette Emily has broken is telling Lorelai that her gift was previously given to her. Although as Emily says, she would probably understand if she met Richard’s mother.

Madonna

LORELAI: I still can’t get over that I’m related to God. It’s gonna make getting Madonna tickets so much easier.

Madonna (born Madonna Ciccone in 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. Regarded as the first multi-media pop icon, she is is known as the Queen of Pop. Her debut album was released in 1983 to immediate success, and was followed by several best-selling albums; her 1998 album Ray of Light won Best Pop Album at the Grammys. Many of her songs have gone to #1 in the charts, including Like a Virgin, Papa Don’t Preach, Like a Prayer, and Vogue. She is the best-selling female recording artist of all time, and in the US is second only to Barbra Streisand. She is the most successful solo act of all time, and the highest-grossing solo touring artist of all time. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.

This is the third time that Lorelai has mentioned Madonna, and I think it is safe to assume that she is one of her favourite singers, especially as Madonna first became a star when Lorelai was a teenager.

Madonna had her Drowned World Tour tour in 2001; she was due to appear in New York at Madison Square Garden during July 25-31 that year. Lorelai’s comment suggests that she may have been trying to obtain tickets to the event. Gilmore Girls episodes didn’t cover this period of the year, so it’s possible that Lorelai and Rory did make it to the concert.

“Camelot is truly dead”

LORELAI: Do you know that butt models make $10,000 a day? [Rory chuckles]
EMILY: Camelot is truly dead.

Camelot is the name of King Arthur’s castle and court in Arthurian legend. Americans use the term to refer to the presidency of John F. Kennedy, which was first applied by his widow Jacqueline Kennedy after his assassination in 1963.

Jackie referenced a line from the 1960 stage musical Camelot: “Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief, shining moment, that was known as Camelot”. Indicating that this was one of John F. Kennedy’s favourite lyrics from the musical, she added, “There will be great presidents again, but there’ll never be another Camelot again”.

I’m not sure where Lorelai received her information from, but butt models in the movies actually make about $500 a day, double that if they go nude. Outside the movies, it might be as little as $200 a day – they get paid by the hour, and let’s face it, hardly anybody wants to film a single butt all day. These days, a butt model could make as much as $5000 from just one Instagram post, but that isn’t the norm, and the option didn’t exist in 2001.

The Kennedy Clan

EMILY: Well, this is just ridiculous. Three intelligent women sitting here in complete silence. There must be something to talk about. Do you know that every night at dinner, the Kennedy clan would sit around the table having lively debates about everything under the sun? They would quiz each other about current events, historical facts, intellectual trivia. Now the Gilmore clan is just as smart and worldly as the Kennedys, so come on – somebody say something.

The Kennedy family have been prominent in American politics, business, and public life since the 1880s, with many of them elected to political office since the post-war era. Some of their most famous members include Joseph P. Kennedy, ambassador to the UK 1938-1940; John F. Kennedy, president from 1961-1963; Robert Kennedy, senator for New York from 1965-1968, and Ted Kennedy, senator for Massachussets from 1962-2009.

Emily is correct that the Kennedy family would quiz each other at the dinner table, but it was a far more competitive environment than she makes it sound. Joseph Kennedy would set one of his children a topic to study, and all the others would have to study it too so that they could quiz him or her to see how well they had learned and understood the topic. Joseph would sometimes enliven proceedings with dinner time lectures, complete with maps and notes.

Incidentally, one of the Kennedys is named Rory – Rory Kennedy (born 1968) is the daughter of Senator Robert Kennedy, born six months after his assassination; her name was chosen to sound like his (“Bobby”). She is a documentary film maker, and her first film was American Hollow in 1999, about life in an Appalachian valley (it bears little resemblance to Stars Hollow). I don’t know if Kennedy influenced the choice of Rory Gilmore’s name in any way.

Hearst Castle

LANE: Is this what your grandparents house looks like?
RORY: No. I mean it’s big, but it’s not this Hearst Castle-ly.

Hearst Castle was built for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst on a family estate between 1919 and 1947. It is located near San Simeon, California, about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and is situated atop a hill, with dramatic views of the Pacific Ocean below.

Hearst Castle was designed by American architect Julia Morgan; it was originally meant to be a modest yet comfortable bungalow, but ended up a grand 56 bedroom, 61 bathroom, 19 sitting room mansion in an eclectic collection of styles that was based on the historical architecture of Europe. On 127 acres of garden, it had both indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, a movie theatre, an airfield, and the world’s largest private zoo.

During the 1920s and ’30s, it was often visited by the political and Hollywood elite, including Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Charles Lindbergh, Charlie Chaplin, The Marx Brothers, Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, James Stewart, and Bob Hope. Hearst Castle was the inspiration for Xanadu, the mansion in the film Citizen Kane, although not filmed there.

Hearst died in 1951, and in 1954 Hearst Castle became a State park in 1954, being opened to the public in 1958. Since then it has operated as a public momument, and attracts millions of visitors every year. The Hearst family continue to use the original Victorian-era house on the estate as a private retreat.

The interior scenes of the party at Madeline’s house were filmed at the Greystone Mansion in Beverley Hills – the same building which is used for exterior shots of Chilton Academy. It’s nowhere near as big as Hearst Castle.

Exedrin PM

LORELAI: Sleep in? Luke?
RACHEL: Oh believe me, it wasn’t easy to get him to agree to it, but in the end, a little sweet talk, a couple of Excedrin PM he finally caved.

Excedrin is a brand of painkillers suitable for headaches, sold over the counter; it contains a mixture of paracetamol, aspirin, and caffeine. It is one of the most popular OTC pain medications in the US. Excedrin PM is paracetamol combined with an antihistamine that makes you drowsy. It’s been produced since 1969.

The fact that the diner opens for business at 6 am, that Luke lives over the diner, and for Luke, sleeping in means he stays in bed until past 6 (only possible because Rachel is there), means that it would never have been possible for him to stay up all night painting with Lorelai as they planned in That Damned Donna Reed, nor would it have been possible for Lorelai to paint the diner alone in the early hours of the morning without waking him.

Bridgeport

Dora, the wife of the mayor Harry Porter, is said to be attending bingo in Bridgeport on the night of the Founder’s Firelight Festival.

Bridgeport is a city in Connecticut with its own seaport, and historically a manufacturing city. Its claims to fame are having showman P.T. Barnum as their mayor in the late 19^th century, being the place where the first Subway restaurant opened, and being the birthplace of the Frisbee.

The city is about 40 minutes drive from Wallingford, where Stars Hollow appears to be located, and there are two bingo halls in Bridgeport where Dora could have been playing.

The New Yorker

DEAN: Well, come on, you always bring a book with you and I was just wondering, what’s the three month anniversary book?
RORY: Actually, I brought The New Yorker.
DEAN: A magazine. Really?
RORY: It’s the Fiction Issue.

The New Yorker is an American magazine, first published in 1925, which comes out 47 times a year. Although often focused on the cultural life of New York City, it has a wide audience around the country and internationally. It’s well known for its commentaries on popular culture, rigorous journalism on political and social issues, and attention to modern fiction.

Some of the famous authors who have written for The New Yorker include Alice Munro, Truman Capote, John Cheever, Vladimir Nabokov, J.D. Salinger, Shirley Jackson, James Thurber, John Updike, Eudora Welty, Stephen King, and Dorothy Parker.

The New Yorker traditionally brings out their Fiction Issue during the summer. The June 19 2000 edition was for debut authors, and that Fiction Issue included works by Marisa Silver, David Schickler, Akhil Sharma, and ZZ Packer.

Was the fifteen-year-old Rory who bought that magazine in her summer vacation just looking for great new stories to read, or was she also dreaming of one day being a first-time writer published in The New Yorker herself?