Footnotes to the TV series
SOOKIE: Oh my God, today was Rory’s first day!
LORELAI: Yes, and I was supposed to look together and fabulous, and not like I’d been up all night playing quarters.
Quarters is a drinking game where people toss quarters (25 cent coins) so that they land in a particular place, usually a glass.
Paris’s stated ambition is to be the valedictorian when she graduates. In the United States and some other countries, the valedictorian is the student chosen to give the farewell address at the graduation ceremony. Often this is the student with the highest grade average, and as Paris is currently the top student in the class, she is on track to achieve her goal.
PARIS: Why are they letting all these extra people in? They just take up space and screw up the curve.
Some schools grade on a curve, meaning that the performance of the group overall is taken into accont when assigning grades. In its most extreme form, grades are assigned based on a student’s rank in class, placing students in direct competition with each other.
Chilton obviously grades on a curve, fostering a highly competitive environment. Paris is concerned that Rory joining the class, with her excellent academic results, may affect her own grades.
HEADMASTER: I’ve known your grandparents for quite some time.
RORY: I know.
HEADMASTER: In fact, I was at a party at their house just last week where I had the most delicious lobster puffs I’ve ever eaten.
A lobster puff is an appetiser of creamy lobster filling inside a choux pastry shell – like a cream puff with lobster inside instead of custard. It has a particular connection to the New England region where Gilmore Girls is set.
There are other, very different, foods called a lobster puff, but I think this is the most likely candidate.
LORELAI: [sees Rory looking at her outfit] What?
RORY: Nothing. I just didn’t know the rodeo was in town.
A rodeo is a competitive sporting event based on cattle herding, testing skills in horse riding and handling livestock. The word rodeo (Spanish for “round up”) comes from Latin America, and was adopted by North American cowboys in the 19th century. Rodeos are particularly popular in the American west, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.
Rory orders chili fries to go with her coffee at Luke’s Diner. Chili fries are French fries covered in chili con carne sauce – a spicy stew usually consisting of chili, beef, tomato, and beans. Chili fries may be served with toppings such as cheese or sour cream.
LUKE: You look nice, too.
LORELAI: I had a flagellation to go to.
A flagellation is a severe whipping given as corporal punishment, usually to the point of bleeding, and often performed in public to increase the humiliation and provide a spectacle. Such punishments were common in the past, and although long abolished in Western nations as a legal punishment, are still routinely handed out by the justice system in other countries around the world.
The word has a specifically religious meaning in Christianity, with The Flagellation of Christ (pictured above) being the scourging administered to Jesus Christ prior to his crucifixion by the Romans – a standard pre-crucifixion punishment at the time.
RORY: How many meals is it gonna take ’til we’re off the hook?
LORELAI: I think the deli spread at my funeral will be the last one.
A deli spread is a buffet of cold cuts and other delicatessen foodstuffs. Presumably this is standard fare at American funerals (more correctly, the refreshments that are served after a funeral service). Lorelai is predicting gloomily that she will be obligated to her parents for the rest of her life.
When Lorelai visits her parents, she makes conversation by asking about her mother’s bridge club. Contract bridge is a complicated card game played by two teams of two against each other, a variant of the older card game whist. The most common form in the United States is duplicate bridge, and it’s a card game which is more commonly played among older people. It is a game of skill involving strategy and tactics, which seems in line with Emily’s character: in fact she is just about to outplay her own daughter.
LORELAI: When did you get stitches?
SOOKIE: Friday night. Radish roses.
A radish rose is a radish cut into a rose shape to use as a garnish or plate decoration. They can be very simply done, or be elaborate – Sookie’s are surely very elegant.
It is notable that Sookie’s constant clumsiness was quietly phased out on the show.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 