Tag: Sports and Games

Turkey-Calling Contest

DEAN: So buck tradition.
RORY: Are you kidding? Do you remember how mad Taylor was when I was sick and I couldn’t go to the turkey-calling contest?

Turkey calling is a type of contest held in North America, where contestants must try to mimic the sound of a turkey so successfully that judges cannot tell the difference between the human and a real turkey. They may use their voice (“natural turkey calling”), or use instruments made of wood, glass, metal, etc, and must perform five different calls.

Turkey calling contests are usually held during the turkey hunting season, in the fall, with Thanksgiving providing a natural occasion to include one. The other season for turkey calling contests is the spring, during the turkey mating season.

If Stars Hollow holds theirs at Thanksgiving, it isn’t mentioned in the Thanksgiving episode we see (that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen offscreen, of course). Also, Rory wasn’t sick the previous Thanksgiving – she seemed fine at the Chilton play, which occurred around the same time. That means that if it’s held at Thanksgiving, Rory must have been sick at Thanksgiving 2000, which took place between “Love and War and Snow” and “Rory’s Dance”. She and Dean had just begun dating then, so he would be able to remember her being too sick to participate.

Another possibility is that it’s part of the Autumn Festival, in early November. Rory wasn’t sick for the 2000 one, but is just possible she was sick the previous year, in 2001. We see her just before and after the festival but not on the day itself, so if she was sick, it would have just been a 24-hour bug (food poisoning from leftovers???).

This is the first mention we get of Taylor apparently insisting that Rory participate in every Stars Hollow activity, even though she didn’t go on the teen hayride in the pilot episode. It puts a slightly sinister spin on the enforced fun that Rory seems to have been pressured into.

Run with the Bulls

LORELAI: Here in my hand I have the pictures and resumes of the top three contenders.
SOOKIE: Anyone good?
LORELAI: No, but two of them have run with the bulls.

A running of the bulls is an event where participants run in front of a small group of bulls through sectioned off streets. The most famous one is is Pamplona, Spain, which takes place at the San Fermin Festival in July each year. The running of the bulls begins at 8 am, and participants must be over 18, not incite the bulls, and cannot be influenced by alcohol. By tradition, participants wear white shirts and trousers with a red kerchief. There are six bulls and nine steers to encourage the bulls. Every year, between 50 and 100 people are injured during the running of the bulls. Since 1910, 15 people have been killed, nearly all by being gored to death.

A-Tisket, A-Tasket

The episode is named for an English nursery rhyme, first recorded in the US in 1879 as a children’s game, to be sung while children danced in a circle. One child would run around the circle and drop a handkerchief; the nearest child to them would then pick it up and chase them. If caught, the child who dropped the handkerchief would either be kissed, join the circle, or had to confess the name of their sweetheart.

The rhyme was turned into a highly popular 1938 song by Ella Fitzgerald, in conjunction with Al Feldner (later known as Van Alexander). It has since become a jazz standard, often used in film and television soundtracks.

The lyrics to the rhyme are usually given as:

A-tisket, a-tasket
A green and yellow basket
I wrote a letter to my love
And on the way I dropped it,
I dropped it, I dropped it,
And on the way I dropped it.
A little boy he picked it up
And put it in his pocket.

It’s suitable for an episode all about baskets, romance, and miscommunication. The episode will also include something being dropped that a “little boy” picks up.

The Three Faces of Costner, and Tom Petty

LORELAI: The three faces of Costner – Bull Durham, Dances with Wolves, The Postman. Tom Petty playing Tom Petty, that great big speech about “Once upon a time there was a thing called mail”. It’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you cry, it’ll make you wanna mail something.

Kevin Costner (born 1955), award-winning actor and filmmaker. The three faces of Costner seem to be the first big success of his career, the greatest success of his career, and what seemed at the time to be the fading of his career with a failed film. In fact, he was to have renewed success with The Open Range in 2003, and received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that same year, so his comeback was just around the corner.

Bull Durham, 1988 romantic comedy sports film. It’s partly based on writer/director Ron Shelton’s experiences in the baseball minor leagues, and depicts the players and fans of the Durham Bulls from Durham, North Carolina. Kevin Costner plays a veteran catcher brought in to teach a rookie pitcher (played by Tim Robbins) about the game in preparation for moving to the major leagues. It was a commercial and critical success, and was named the #1 sports film ever by Sports Illustrated. It’s also considered one of the best comedies. It helped solidify Costner as an A-list celebrity.

Dances with Wolves, 1990 epic western which stars, and was produced and directed by, Kevin Costner, in his directorial debut. It’s based on the 1988 novel of the same name by Michael Blake, and tells the story of a Union Army Lieutenant who travels to the American frontier to find a military post, and his dealings with a group of Lakota (much of the dialogue is in Lakota with English subtitles). It was a box office hit, and the #4 film of the year. It was also favourably reviewed, and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. It is credited with revitalising the western genre in film.

The Postman, 1997 post-apocalyptic action adventure film, which was also produced and directed by Kevin Costner, who plays the lead role. It is based on the 1985 novel of the same name by David Brin. Set in a neo-western version of a disestablished US in the near future of 2013, an unspecified apocalyptic event has led to war and plagues, leaving a huge impact on human civilisation and erasing most technology. A nomadic drifter finds an old uniform of a US Postal Services mail carrier, and unwittingly inspires hope, becoming a national hero. It failed at the box office and was heavily criticised in reviews.

Thomas “Tom” Petty (1950-2017), singer, songwriter, and musician. He was the lead vocalist and guitarist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed 1976, and was a member of the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys, as well as performing as a solo artist. He sold more than 80 million records worldwide, making him one of the most successful music artists of all time. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

He seemingly plays himself as the mayor of Bridge City in The Postman, as Kevin Costner’s character immediately recognises him as a famous person. Tom Petty had a post-apocalyptic themed story in his 1982 song I Got Lucky, and mentioned wanting to have a small part in a futuristic postwar movie. He finally got the chance in this film. [Picture shows Petty as the mayor].

Minutemen

TAYLOR: Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the new uniforms of the fabulous fighting Minutemen.

The Stars Hollow basketball team is called the Minutemen. They are patriotically named after the Minutemen from American history – civilian colonists who independently formed their own militia groups during the American Revolutionary War, so called because they were ready to fight at a minute’s notice. They were among the first to fight during the war, comprising perhaps a quarter of all troops. Generally young, they provided a highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that could respond immediately to threats.

We knew of the Minutemen way back in Series 1, Episode 1, in the Pilot. When Rory is talking to Dean for the first time at school, there is a sign outside the high school saying Go Minutemen, listing them as the champion team of the 1997-98 season.

Chicago Bulls, Shaq

TAYLOR: It’s already shaping up to be the best season ever, due in part to the recent arrival of our brand new basketball coach Lou Magillian, formerly the presiding legal counsel for the Chicago Bulls. Lou, come on up here and take a bow. Those other teams had better watch out, we’ve got one of the big boys on our side now, huh? Shaq who?

The Chicago Bulls are a basketball team in the NBA, founded in 1966. They had their greatest success in the 1990s, winning 72 games in 1995-1996 – the first team to win more than 70 games in a single season. They are the only NBA team to win multiple championships while never losing a finals series. Their star faded after 1998, and in the 2000s, the team was struggling. (Amusingly, the high school basketball team is thrilled to even the get the lawyer for the Chicago Bulls as their coach!).

Shaquille O’Neal, commonly known as “Shaq” (born 1972) is a former basketball player, a four-time champion, and generally regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. In 2002, he was playing for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Chuck Mangione

RUNE: Welcome Lords and Ladies. I call upon these sprightly horns to commence our proceedings. [horns play] Hey Chuck Mangione, you wanna back up a step?

Charles “Chuck” Mangione (born 1940) is a flugelhorn player, trumpeter, and composer. He came to prominence in the 1960s as a member of Art Blakey’s jazz band, then formed The Jazz Brothers with his brother Gaspare “Gap” Mangione. He has released more than sixty albums, and achieved international success with his 1977 jazz-pop single, Feels So Good. His compositions have been used in films and for the Olympic Games. He played himself as a voice actor on animated sitcom King of the Hill (1997-2010).

The Iliad and Monopoly

PARIS: Well, my parents are out of town, so my Portuguese nanny will make dinner and then I’ll either get back to reading The Iliad or we’ll play Monopoly. I crush her every time.

The Iliad, an ancient Greek epic poem, attributed to Homer, and usually dated to around the 8th century BC. The poem is set during the final weeks of the Trojan War, but contains so many allusions to past and future events that by the end it has told the entire story.

Monopoly, a board game where players roll dice to move around the board while buying and trading property. First published by Parker Brothers in 1935, and based on the 1903 The Landlord’s Game created by Lizzie Magie, it is one of the most well-known board games in the world.

Paris’ parents have gone away just as Paris goes on her break from school. It’s almost as if they’re trying to get away from her; they’re certainly not including her in their plans … no wonder the poor kid needs a nanny.

Ringer

LORELAI: He’s a ringer.
RORY: How do you figure?
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.

Ringer is slang for a contestant who enters a competition under false pretences, such as a professional entering an amateur contest. It comes from horse racing, where a fast horse was sometimes substituted for a slower one, known as a “ring-in”.

Although Lorelai is being deliberately preposterous, it does seem a little mean for such an experienced competitor to enter a local contest in a small town, especially when there isn’t even a large prize to act as an incentive. He isn’t actually building a snowman anyway – he’s creating an ice/snow sculpture, which is a different entity. I feel as if he should be disqualified.