LANE: I’ve never really felt this way before. I mean, Henry – yes, but we never spent any real time together. It’s not just puppy love, you know, it’s different.
Puppy love is an informal term for feelings of romantic love experienced by a child or someone in early adolescence. Often these crushes are on someone that the young person doesn’t know, such as an actor or pop star. Lane seems to be saying that her attraction to Henry was not only immature, but barely based on reality, as she didn’t really know him.
DAVE: Lane, think about this, do you really believe this is working?
LANE: No, it’s not working. We sound like a bunch of wankers.
Wanker, offensive British slang literally referring to someone who masturbates, used to mean someone is stupid, foolish, or unpleasant (often obnoxious or arrogant). I’m not sure if Lane realises how offensive the word is, and may be using it as an approximation of “jerks”. I presume that rehearsing “London Calling” has inspired the use of British slang.
LANE: Dave, talk to them. You’re the leader, that’s flat out insubordination going on in there! They should be flogged, keelhauled, strung up from the highest yard-arm!
Lane’s suggestions for punishments Dave should use on Zack and Brian come from those used on sailors long ago, suggesting that she sees Dave as the “captain” of the band.
Flogging: being beaten with a lash or a cat o’ nine tails, a whip made from nine strands with small knots on the ends (see Flagellation). This was a common punishment, administered to a sailor’s bare back while his wrists were tied to a grate, performed in front of the entire ship’s company. Outlawed in 1806, it wasn’t suspended until 1881.
Keelhauling [pictured]: a form of punishment where the offending sailor was tied to a line looped beneath the vessel, thrown overboard on one side of the ship, and dragged under the ship’s keel, either from one side of the ship to the other, or the length of the ship. It could lead to death by drowning or head trauma, or result in permanent injury. It was an official, although rare, punishment in the Dutch navy. There are vague reports of it being used elsewhere, although there are no records of it.
Strung from the highest yard-arm: sentenced to being hanged after an official court-martial, the ultimate punishment for desertion, rebellion, or mutiny. A noose would be placed around their necks, the rope running through a tackle, or pulley, hanging from the yard-arm (a large pole going across the mast). A team of sailors would slowly pull on the rope until the hanging was complete. The last such hanging was in 1860.
Taylor unveils a diorama of his soda shop proposal to entice the town meeting into agreeing that Stars Hollow needs one.
A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. They are sometimes made by hobbyists.
This one is a miniature, but in a later season, Taylor creates a life-sized diorama.
CAROL: If you were to tell either of my siblings that there was another life choice outside of the Ivy League, I think their khakis would wrinkle.
Khakis, another name for chinos, trousers made from a cotton twill (see Cotton Dockers). Developed in the mid-19th century for British and French military uniforms, it has since migrated into civilian wear. Trousers of such a fabric gained popularity in the US when Spanish–American War veterans returned from the Philippines with their twill military trousers. The fabric was originally made in khaki, and this is still the most popular colour.
A round-robin tournament is one in which each contestant meets with every other contestant, usually in turn. It’s usually the fairest way of deciding an overall winner, but can be very lengthy. They are common in team sports – Darren’s love of sports might have prompted this idea. The word robin in this context is a corruption of the French word ruban, meaning “ribbon”.
Oddly, Marie (played by Anita Finlay, who, like her onscreen husband and children, had also been on Judging Amy) is never shown taking part in the quizzes or being expected to, as if her role is simply to bring out iced tea and say Darren is brilliant. It doesn’t seem very likely – surely Marie is also a college graduate? Perhaps we just never see her have her turn, and she takes her part during the round-robin tournament.
Lorelai looks very unhappy to be roped into the round-robin tournament. Jennifer looks like Christmas has come early, and Jack looks like he’s forcing himself to smile. I get the feeling he’s not quite as into the competitive quizzes as Jennifer. He doesn’t seem to be as good at them.
Alma mater, a Latin phrase used to identify a school, college, or university that one has attended or graduated from. It literally means “nourishing mother”, as if the student has gained intellectual nourishment from their school. It is related to the word alumnus, previously discussed – alumnus literally means “one who is nourished”.
The Latin phrase was originally a title for mother goddesses such as Ceres and Cybele, later given as a title to the Virgin Mary. It was first used academically in the English-speaking world in 1600, referring to Cambridge University, as part of the emblem for Cambridge University Press. You can see in the picture it was portrayed quite literally, with milk pouring out from the breasts of Cambridge – the milk of knowledge, I suppose.
LORELAI: So, alumna is a girl graduate … And alumnus is a man … And plural is alumni.
RORY: Right, and that can be girls and guys.
A quick run-down on the correct usage of the Latin word alumnus – all terms used more commonly in the US than in other countries.
An alumnus is a man who has graduated from a particular institution, such as “a Harvard alumnus”, while a woman in the same position is an alumna. The plural is alumni, which can be either a group of male graduates, or a group of both males and females. The plural of only female graduates is alumnae. There is also alum – which is a gender neutral term that doesn’t get used as much, but may become more common in the future.
LUKE: [looking at surveillance photos] These are kids on skateboards.
TAYLOR: Slaloming around pop bottles right down the middle of the street.
A slalom is a downhill race that involves zig-zagging between markers. Originally used for skiing, the slalom has been part of skateboarding since the 1960s.
LANE: [on phone] No, wait, wait, wait, progressive rock is a really passé style now but I listed it as an influence because it was a progenitor of great things that came afterwards.
Progressive rock, usually shortened to prog rock or just prog, a broad genre of rock music developed during the mid-to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Initially termed “progressive pop”, the style grew out of psychedelic bands who abandoned standard pop traditions in favour of instrumentation and composition more often associated with jazz, folk, or classical music.
Additionally, lyrics were more poetic, technology was harnessed for new sounds, music approached the condition of “art”, and the studio, rather than the stage, became the focus of musical activity, which often involved creating music for listening rather than dancing. Examples of prog rock bands include Emerson Lake & Palmer, Genesis, King Crimson, The Moody Blues, and Pink Floyd.
Lane says that progressive rock is passé, in that its heyday was in the 1970s, but in fact there were a wave of bands in the 2000s who revived the genre, such as System of a Down and Thirty Seconds to Mars. Perhaps that’s what she means by it being a progenitor of great things?
Lane is receiving responses to the advertisement she posted looking for a band that needed a drummer. Naturally she is deluged with enquiries, beginning early in the morning! Yes, the local area is filled with bands looking for a drummer, scanning the advertisements for one, and eagerly calling before breakfast to find them! We are in complete fantasy land here. Instead of being stunned that she gets any answers at all, Lane is irritated that they aren’t all on her musical wavelength.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 