Footnotes to the TV series
MOREY: Let’s stay outside a while, baby. Look for the Big Dipper.
BABETTE: OK, I’d like that.
The mostly North American term for the seven brightest stars of Ursa Major (the northern hemisphere constellation of the Great Bear). In Britain these stars are traditionally known as The Plough.
SOOKIE: You know, my Roquefort puffs would compliment that dish quite well.
Roquefort cheese puffs are appetisers made from choux pastry filled with a creamy Roquefort cheese filling – like savoury cream puffs stuffed with cheese. (Roquefort is a French blue cheese made from sheep’s milk). They sure love their puffed food on this show.
LORELAI: This is a very delicate, fragile situation. It’s like one of your soufflés. If you don’t do it right it’s a disaster.
SOOKIE: And you have to order it 45 minutes in advance.
A soufflé is a classic French baked egg dish which can either be savoury or sweet; its name is from the French for “breathe, puff”. After being cooked, a soufflé will be fluffy and puffed-up, but it will go down after a few minutes, so the serving must be timed with great precision.
LORELAI: Not here, skanking to Rancid?
Skanking, as ably demonstrated by Lane in this scene, is a ska and ska punk dance style. It originated in the Jamaican dance halls of the 1950s, and was revived (and sped up considerably) in the 1970s during the punk movement.
RORY: Well stay in the car.
LORELAI: It’s dangerous in the car with all the kamikaze deer running around [getting out of car]
During World War II, Japanese kamikaze pilots were those who took part in suicide attacks against Allied forces in the Pacific campaign. The word kamikaze means “divine wind, spirit wind”.
Lorelai identifies gauchos as being one of the times in her life she was wrong. Gaucho pants are a women’s fashion item: very wide-legged trousers with a cuff ending mid-calf – basically long culottes. They are named after the trousers favoured by South American gauchos (“cowboys”).
They were in style in the early 1970s as something of a feminist statement, and soon went out of favour because they are rather unflattering. They have never quite gone away, due to being practical and comfortable.
MICHEL: There is a man with a funny accent on the phone asking for you.
LORELAI: Really? Did you guys exchange the secret handshake?
A secret handshake is any non-standard handshake used to signify fellowship within a certain group. The most famous organisation with a secret handshake is The Freemasons.
It is not clear who the man with the funny accent is: it is presumably either Mr. Medina or Headmaster Charleston, neither of whom has an especially hilarious accent. Maybe all Americans sound funny to Michel.
JACKSON: So, I hear the huckleberry crops are gonna totally suck this year!
[Sookie just looks at him.]
Huckleberry is an American dialect word for the shrub fruit known as the bilberry – a variant of the English dialect word hurtleberry or whortleberry. In America, the term huckleberry is applied to several different species of berry, including dangleberries and blueberries.
The peak season for huckleberries finishes in mid-September, so by this time of year the huckleberry crop would normally “suck” anyway. No wonder Sookie gives Jackson a look.
The huckleberry crops serve as a reminder of Huckleberry Finn.
JACKSON (to Sookie): OK, now before you get all goofy on me, I don’t have your porcinis … And I have the morels, which I know you don’t want.
Porcini and morel are different varieties of edible mushroom. Porcinis [pictured] are often added to risotto … could this be one of the ingredients in Sookie’s “magic risotto”? Morels are commonly used in French cuisine.
LORELAI: Last week there was a huge debate over whether plaid scrunchies were acceptable head wear [at Chilton]. People took sides, things got ugly, the scrunchie motion finally passed and I’d like to think I was the tie breaker.
A scrunchie is a fabric-covered elastic hair accessory, used to tie back long hair. Scrunchies were particularly fashionable during the 1980s and ’90s. They were falling out of style in 2000, but at Chilton are still a source of concern.
Later in the episode, we learn that Lorelai’s championing of plaid scrunchies has led some parents to put her down as lower class, as they speculate that her child must be at Chilton on a scholarship, rather than because of rich grandparents.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 