Foie gras

RORY: Frozen pizza is a staple at our house. Mom’s become a major doctoring genius. She’ll put anything on it. One time Sookie came and brought us some foie gras, and Mom stuck it on a pizza.
EMILY: How was it?
RORY: Pretty good once we took the foie gras off.

Foie gras is a luxury food originating in France. It is made from the liver of a duck or goose which has been force-fed corn through a tube, giving it a rich texture and more delicate flavour. Due to the animal cruelty involved, many countries have banned the production or importation of foie gras, but it is still available in most of the US.

Fiesta Burger

Lorelai gets fiesta burgers for she and Max to eat at the movies – the bookstore is clearly more relaxed about the audience bringing their own food compared to a standard movie theatre. The burgers are bought from a takeaway place with a pickup window; we later learn this establishment is named JoJo’s.

A fiesta burger is a hamburger which includes chilli peppers amongst the ingredients. Fiesta is Spanish for “festival, party”.

Pager

In this episode we see that Rory has a pager, which Lane contacts her on. In a later episode it is possible to see that it is an American Online (AOL) pager.

A pager is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays messages, or receives voice messages sent from a telephone. They came into use in the 1950s, and became widespread during the 1980s. Their use declined markedly during the 2000s with the rise of mobile phones that allow text messaging and voicemail.

Musket

TAYLOR: Who’s stepping on my musket?
KIRK: That’d be me.

A musket is a long gun with a flintlock mechanism, fired over the shoulder, and with musket balls as the ammunition rather than bullets. They were in use from the 17^th century, and were the weapon of choice in the American Revolutionary War.

They weren’t very accurate as they didn’t have a sight on them, and took ages to reload. Nonetheless if they did hit their mark they could be deadly, and leave a larger and more complex wound than a modern gun (not to mention the lower standard of medical care victims would have received in the 18^th century). Muskets were superseded by the rifle in the 19^th century.

Saddle shoes

LORELAI: Hi. Things bad out there, huh?
RORY: It’s crazy. There’s snow coming down everywhere, and let me just tell you, saddle shoes are not the best all-weather footwear.

Saddle shoes are casual two-toned Oxford shoes that have a distinctive “saddle” shaped decorative panel over the middle; they were popular footwear in the 1950s. They are often worn as part of a school uniform. You can see Rory’s black and white saddle shoes throughout her years at Chilton.

Keen

SOOKIE: She’s bringing baked goods to a boy. Wow, serious!
LORELAI: [in high voice] “Here Dean, these cookies are for you, ’cause you’re keen.”

Keen is outdated teenage slang meaning nice, great, cool, groovy, neat. Lorelai seems to enjoy teasing Rory by doing a mock-imitation of her as if she’s in the 1950s.

Rocky Road Cookies

Sookie gives Rory a bag of these cookies as a gift for Dean. Rocky road is a type of candy which has marshmallows and nuts melted into milk chocolate. It seems to originate in 19^th century Australia, although the UK and US have their own versions of rocky road which slightly differ from the Australian one. Rocky road cookies are cookies with choc chips, marshmallows and nuts in them. Despite her sweet tooth, Rory doesn’t like them.

Maple Sugar Snowflakes

SOOKIE: Okay, how does this sound? Maple sugar snowflakes on all the pillows.
LORELAI: Oh, that’s sounds wonderful!

Sookie is making candy from maple sugar, and using a mould in the shape of a snowflake. You can buy this candy commercially as well as making it yourself.

Parka

LORELAI: Ah, we’ll need to pull out the sleds, people might want to sled. Ooh, and the parkas, we’ll need the parkas.

A parka is a thick heavy waterproof jacket with down (or synthetic down) lining and a hood, often trimmed with fur or faux-fur. Originally they were traditional garb for Inuit women, so that they could breastfeed a baby in the freezing conditions of the Arctic.

Apparently the Independence Inn keeps spare parkas for the use of guests who might have forgotten to bring their own, or been surprised by unexpected cold weather.

“Many moons ago”

MAX (on answering machine): Anyhow, as I sit here losing my faith in mankind, I wonder if we’re ever gonna actually go on that date we talked about many moons ago.

A “moon” is an old-fashioned way of saying “a month”, or one lunar cycle from new moon to new moon. Max is speaking poetically rather than literally – they made the date in October and it’s now November, so it’s only one moon ago, or at most, one moon and a bit.