High tea

MICHEL: Can I kill her [Drella]?
LORELAI: Not before high tea.

In Britain, high tea was a heavy meal served at the end of the working day, consisting of meat or fish dishes with vegetables, including roasts, pies, stews and casseroles. It was what most people would call “dinner” today, although in British English “tea” can still be used to denote the main evening meal.

In international usage, “high tea” is often used as a synonym for afternoon tea, and at an inn, has connotations of a fairly elaborate, formal spread.

“Wonder if Versace makes a pacifier”

MICHEL: These are $300 Italian loafers.
DRELLA: Wonder if Versace makes a pacifier.

Versace is an Italian luxury fashion company, founded by Gianni Versace in 1978. It is a favourite brand of numerous celebrities.

A pacifier is what Americans call the rubber teat with a plastic shield given to babies to suck on; in other countries it might be known as a dummy, teether, or soother.

Intervention

LORELAI: We’re going to stage an intervention with the neon post-its and make them give up their wacky crazy ways.

An intervention is an attempt made to confront someone with an addiction or other serious personal problem by a group of concerned people, usually family and friends. Interventions are designed to persuade the addict to seek treatment or other professional help for their problems.

Lithium

LORELAI: Now these erasers are on lithium so they may seem cheerful but we actually caught them trying to shove themselves in the pencil sharpener earlier.

Lithium (Li) is a chemical element; the lightest metal and the lightest solid element. Lithium salts are used as a psychiatric medication to treat major depressive disorders and bipolar disorders; it is not understood how they work to stabilise mood, but they reduce the incidence of suicide.

Legal pad

RORY: I need legal pads.

A legal pad is a notebook of lined paper with gum binding at the top. To be classified as a legal pad, it must have a margin of 3.17 cm from the edge on the left hand side, in which comments can be written. Legal pads are commonly made from yellow paper with blue ruled lines, although as Lorelai soon finds, they come in other colours as well.

Condo

MRS. SHALES: They just told me they’re going to share a condo in Tuscon. Arizona! That’s hundreds of miles away!

In the US and many parts of Canada, condo is short for condominium, real estate in which residential units are separately owned, but surrounded by areas which are jointly owned, such as hallways, laundry rooms, swimming pools, and gardens. In other countries this may be known as strata title or commonhold.

It doesn’t seem like a good idea for the quarrelling twins to share a unit together with their new husbands, but Mrs. Shales is just happy they’re a long way from her.

The twins moving away from their mother is an object lesson to Lorelai – if she keeps fighting with Rory, she may end up losing her daughter. Worse, it may come as a relief to her.

Chrestomathy

The book which Richard calls Rory to talk about is A Mencken Chrestomathy by American author and journalist H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), first published in 1948. A chrestomathy is a selection of literary passages, usually by a single author; in this case it is a selection of Mencken’s own out-of-print writings chosen by himself.

With the phone call from Richard, the audience (and Lorelai) can see that Rory and her grandfather are bonding over books and reading. Rory must have told Richard about her journalistic ambitions when she told him she was looking for the book, and he almost immediately found a copy for her.

It can’t help but put Lorelai’s nose out of joint. In all her years at the inn, her father has never once phoned her at work. Yet after just one morning with Rory, Richard calls his granddaughter to talk about a book while she is working at the Independence.

Jukebox

DRELLA: I’m not a jukebox.

Jukeboxes are automated music machines with a selection of songs, usually coin operated. The first jukeboxes were produced in 1927, with their heyday in the 1950s. They began declining after the introduction of the portable radio and portable cassette player. Today digital jukeboxes and jukebox apps continue the tradition.

Deviated septum

LORELAI: You got your fabulous flair from me.
RORY: I also got my deviated septum from you.

The nasal septum is the bone and cartilage which separates the right and left sides of the nose, dividing the nostrils. A deviated septum is one where some displacement has taken place in the septum. It’s a common condition – most of us have a deviated septum to some degree. It is most often caused by facial trauma, or is apparent from birth, either during fetal development, or through compression during childbirth. It is only rarely genetic, so Rory may have “got” her deviated septum from Lorelai (while being born), but didn’t inherit it.

In severe cases a deviated septum can cause problems with breathing which may require a minor surgical procedure. It is unclear whether Rory ever needed or received this surgery.

Metronome

MISS PATTY: It’s your wedding day. Feel each other. Use the thumping of your heart as a metronome.

A metronome is a device which produces an audible beat at regular intervals. Musicians use it to practice playing to a particular tempo.

This is a music-heavy episode, and the connection between the heart and metronome shows how closely aligned music and emotion is. One of the themes of the episode is how Lorelai must learn to control her feelings to maintain her relationship with Rory, just as the metronome controls the beat of the music.