Tag: Speculation

“Ten minutes”

LUKE: I go up there every ten minutes pretending to get something to keep them from doing something we don’t want … I got a good system, it works.
LORELAI: Every ten minutes?
LUKE: Like clockwork …
LORELAI: Ten minutes. Yeah, that’s pretty much the time it took to create Rory. And that included getting dressed and freshening my lipstick.

Luke was originally so concerned about Jess and Rory kissing in the apartment that he laid down the law and said they weren’t even allowed to sit on the sofa at the same time. Now he’s become so relaxed that he’s cool with them lying on the sofa in an embrace, making out for hours. He just checks on them every ten minutes.

Luke’s sudden change of attitude seems to have begun when he started dating Nicole, suggesting that his concern about Jess and Rory being together was at least partly fuelled by an unhappy awareness that he was without a partner, while his teenage nephew had a girlfriend.

Lorelai points out that ten minutes provides ample time to have sex, and says that conceiving Rory took her well under that time. (Yes, this is a slam to Christopher, but to be fair, he was a teenage boy). She doesn’t labour the point, but Luke immediately looks panicked.

Encyclopedia Brown

JESS: Got a lot of books here. Anything in particular?
LORELAI: It’s one of Luke’s.
JESS: Well, if it doesn’t have Encyclopedia Brown in the title, that narrows it down a lot.

Encyclopedia Brown, a series of 29 children’s books written by Donald J. Sobol; the first one was in 1963, and the last in 2012 (posthumous). The books follow the adventures of a boy detective, Leroy Brown, nicknamed “Encyclopedia” for his intelligence and range of knowledge.

Jess’ comments suggests that most of the books Luke has are his Encyclopedia Brown books from his childhood. Note the similarity with Lorelai reading all the Nancy Drew books when she was young.

SoHo

LUKE: Got a great book, it has walking tours of old historic Manhattan. You know, before Disney got a hold of it. The SoHo one’s pretty good.

SoHo, neighbourhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists’ lofts and art galleries, and has also been known for its variety of shops ranging from trendy upscale boutiques to national and international chain store outlets.

The name “SoHo” derives from the area being “South of Houston Street”, and was coined in 1962 by urban planner Chester Rapkin. The name also recalls Soho, an area in London’s West End.

Note a few changes in Luke since he started dating Nicole – he readily discusses fashion, musicals, and historic walking tours with Lorelai. She is a little surprised at how authoritative he has become in these areas so quickly. I can’t help feeling Luke is slightly rubbing her face in it, since he has always resisted Lorelai’s attempts to get him interested in such things.

The book Luke has is possibly fictional, although there are plenty of books in real life with historic walking tours of New York.

Another of Lane’s Zany Schemes

LANE: At 3:40, my mom will be on her way to the yarn store for her bimonthly sew-a-thon with Lacey Schwartz and Bich Ho.
DAVE: The yarn store’s on Peach.
LANE: Plum.
DAVE: That cuts us off from our usual route to the interstate.
LANE: There’s a back road that circles around it, but it’s gonna be muddy from the rains.
DAVE: How about I have the guys take the usual route, I’ll go by foot on Peach, down the alley behind Al’s, over the fence, and they can pick me up a half a mile down by the Shell station.
LANE: Perfect. Uh, what, that’s not complicated.

Lane and Dave have come up with some ingenious plan to avoid seeing Mrs Kim, so that she doesn’t realise Dave is in (gasp) a band. And even worse, that Lane is too. Lane confessed her feelings about Dave to her mother at the family wedding, and we don’t know any more since then. Presumably Mrs Kim is still unable to move on from Dave not being Korean.

We learn a little bit of back story during this scene. Mrs Kim’s life apparently doesn’t revolve entirely around work, church, and family – she also attends a sewing circle (?) once a fortnight at the local yarn store with two women named Lacey Schwartz and Bich Ho (Ho is a common Vietnamese surname, and Bich is a Vietnamese girl’s name meaning “jade”).

The yarn store is on Plum Street, one street over from Peach Street, which is where Dean and his family live. Lorelai described this area to Jess as a desirable residential neighbourhood, so it’s slightly surprising to learn it has shops around it as well – and also leads to the alley behind Al’s, which is always implied to be in the centre of town. Maybe Peach is a very long street? Incidentally, I wonder if this alley is the one Lorelai and Rory were shown walking down in “The Break Up, Part 2”?

Unlike Henry, Dave readily fits in with all of Lane’s zany schemes to keep secrets from her mother, and even comes up with own solutions. They are clearly made for each other.

Memorial to Casimir Pulaski

In the background in the town square is a memorial to Casimir Pulaski (1745-1779), Polish nobleman, soldier, and military commander who has been called the “father of the American cavalry.”

Driven into exile after a failed uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he came to North America to help in the American Revolutionary War, following a recommendation by Benjamin Franklin. He distinguished himself throughout the revolution, most notably when he saved the life of George Washington.

Pulaski became a general in the Continental Army, and he created the Pulaski Cavalry Legion, reforming the American cavalry as a whole. He was killed at the Battle of Savannah, and is remembered as a hero who fought for independence and freedom in Poland and the US.

Numerous places and events are named in his honour, and he is one of only eight people to be awarded honorary United States citizenship. There is a very fine statue in his honour in Hartford, and the memorial in Stars Hollow may be an attempt to provide a fictional counterpart.

Another Confusing Timeline

Yep, it’s an episode of Gilmore Girls written by Daniel Palladino, so it’s time for another segment of “How to Make Sense of This Timeline”.

To recap. The episode begins with a Friday Night Dinner on February 7th, where Emily asks Rory to invite her boyfriend Jess to the next Friday Night Dinner, which would be February 14th. Sounds simple, right? Wrong.

The next scene appears to be the Sunday after the Friday Night Dinner, where Lorelai and Rory watch movies on the one day of the week they have to spend together. They discuss their future plans, which are that Rory is going on a date with Jess on the following Saturday afternoon, followed by studying in the evening, while Lorelai has a date with Alex at the same time.

Next, we cross straight to Rory and Jess’ Saturday afternoon date, which appears to be hanging around the town square together yet again. So … where did Friday go? That is, the Friday Night Dinner which was the day before this date?

The only way you can make sense of this is that Emily said next Friday, but she actually meant the next Friday to that, February 21st. As Friday the 14th is Valentine’s Day, it is possible that Emily gave them the night off from Friday Night Dinner so they could go out with their respective boyfriends. (There is precedent for Emily making allowances for romantic dates).

Therefore, the next Friday Night Dinner to February 7th would be February 21st, and this is the dinner Emily invites Jess to.

Jim Dunning

LORELAI: No, Jim is coming here to fix the garbage disposal.
RORY: Jim Dunning, got it.

In an earlier episode, Jim Dunning is mentioned as the auto mechanic who used to run the Hewes Brothers garage – before Gypsy became the mechanic there (although there may have been someone named Musky in between them, it’s not made explicit).

Either Jim Dunning (who Lorelai couldn’t remember before, not even whether he was tall and thin or short and stocky) is now fixing garbage disposals, or Rory is joking, as if “Jim Dunning” has become their name for any random guy who fixes stuff.

Dean Martin Roast

LORELAI: It’s like a Dean Martin Roast.
RORY: Those are never funny to me.
LORELAI: Yeah, they’re mean.

The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast is a series of television specials hosted by entertainer Dean Martin, airing from 1974 to 1984. For a series of 54 specials and shows, Martin and his friends would “roast” a celebrity. Roasting means to joke about and insult a celebrity, while also honouring them. The roasts were patterned after the roasts held at the New York Friars’ Club.

The specials were released on DVD, which is presumably how Rory was able to watch them. I find it unbelievable they would buy DVDs they didn’t find funny, or that they dislike “mean jokes” – Lorelai and Rory are both pretty cruel when it comes to humour. I can only think this is a little act they are putting on for Emily.

Easter Parade

Lorelai sings the theme song to the film Easter Parade, previously discussed, as she starts setting up the new DVD player for Emily – perhaps partly to block out Emily’s complaints!

The song “Easter Parade” was written by Irving Berlin in 1933 – the melody was written in 1917, and was originally for a song called, “Smile and Show Your Dimple”, intended to cheer up girls who had to send their husbands and sweethearts off to war. A 1918 recording by Sam Ash had modest success.

The Easter lyrics for the tune were written in 1933 for a Broadway musical called As Thousands Cheer, first sung by Marilyn Miller and Clifton Webb. It has featured in several films, including Holiday Inn, while the film Easter Parade is constructed around the song, and performed by Judy Garland and Fred Astaire. Several artists have had hits with the song, including Bing Crosby and Liberace.