Footnotes to the TV series
LUKE: So you passed the need for an actual person to talk to several minutes ago.
LORELAI: Oh, yeah. Before the gelato stand.
Gelato is Italian ice cream; the word means “frozen” in Italian. It generally has less fat than other ice creams, but greater density and more intense flavours. Legend says the origins of gelato go back to the Roman Empire, but the dessert only became widely commercially available and popular in the 1920s, in the city of Varese in northern Italy.
Rory calls carbonated soft drink “soda” while Dean calls it “pop”. Both words are correct in the US, with some regional differences. Pop is more commonly used in the Midwest, while soda is the more common word in New England.
(After Rory confesses she did a load of laundry without asking Lorelai)
LORELAI: I’m crushed. I’m bleeding. Get me a tourniquet. Oh, no, they’re dirty ’cause Rory wouldn’t wash them with her stuff.
A tourniquet is a device used to control blood flow after an injury. Tourniquets have been especially used on battlefields.
Lorelai’s pretense at suffering deep emotional pain will soon be replaced by genuine emotional pain.
EMILY: You smiled. You’re pleased that the ice man looked at you like a Porterhouse steak.
A Porterhouse steak is cut from the rear end of sirloin of beef (called a short loin in the US), and contain a large tenderloin of steak. They are the most highly prized of all the steak cuts.
LORELAI: Twelve dollars is a perfect present, Mom. She’ll love that.
EMILY: Can I at least get her the pashmina also?
Pashmina is a fine cashmere wool, first made in the Himalaya region of Kashmir in India, and used to make shawls, scarves, and wraps. Woollen shawls from Kashmir have been known since the Bronze Age.
There was a fad for pashmina in the 1990s which led to practically any good quality woollen accessory being sold as “a pashmina”, so there is no guarantee that Damien’s is selling the authentic article. In fact they most likely aren’t.
EMILY: Yes, but I want to get her something special, something she wants, something …that you would get her.
LORELAI: Oh, OK, fine. You can get her the bong then.
A bong is a water pipe used to smoke marijuana, and more rarely, other substances. They have been used since prehistoric times, and known in China, Laos, Thailand, and Africa for centuries – the word comes from the Thai language.
In the US you can buy a bong, and I think you could have done so in 2000, but oddly they don’t like you to use the word in the store, preferring that you ask for a glass pipe or water pipe (or just point).
JACKSON: For some time now I’ve been toying with cross-pollination. Finally I’ve got it. I figured out a way to cross a raspberry with a cumquat.
A cumquat is a small cold-hardy citrus fruit native to south Asia and the Asia-Pacific. They were introduced to Europe and North America from China in the 19th century.
In reality, it is not possible to cross a cumquat with a raspberry. It’s clearly just a joke by the scriptwriter, but if you were determined to make this a semi-believable situation, yellow raspberries do exist, and Jackson might have bred one with an especially sharp, citrus-y flavour, making him over-excitedly believe that he had somehow crossed a raspberry with a cumquat.
Sookie makes mini orange biscuits with honey-mustard ham and Cheddar cheese. In North American, the word biscuit refers to a small quick-bread, raised with baking soda rather than yeast. They are similar to scones and bannocks.
She also makes angel wings. Although angel wings can refer to a variety of foods, including a type of European fried pastry, I’m pretty sure Sookie means stuffed crumbed chicken wings, which are often served with spicy or Asian-style dipping sauces, and make suitable finger food for a party.
EMILY: It’s dessert.
LORELAI: It’s pudding.
In North America, the word pudding refers to a sweet, milk-based dessert, often commercially set using cornstarch or gelatin. In other countries, these desserts might be called custard, blancmange, or mousse.
LORELAI: Well there’s no messages on the machine, Mom.
EMILY: I don’t leave messages. If I wanted to talk to a machine I’d talk to my VCR.
A VCR is a video cassette recorder, a device which records analog audio and video from television onto a magnetic tape cassette. First sold in the mid-1970s, they boomed during the 1980s and ’90s. At this time videos were widely available for sale or rental, and blank cassette tapes were sold so people could record TV shows. They declined after the release of DVDs in the 2000s.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 