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Gilmore Girls Season 1, Episode 9, "Rory's Dance": Pop Culture Rewatch
Episode 9 • 7th November 2025 • Friday Night Readers: Pop Culture Rewatch of Gilmore Girls • Friday Night Readers
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Welcome to Gilmore Girls Season 1, Episode 9, "Rory's Dance": Pop Culture Rewatch ! In this podcast episode, I share the books and pop culture referenced when Rory and Dean attend Chilton's Winter Formal Dance... and stay out all night.

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Books, Pop Culture, and Other Mentions:

Full Show Notes For Gilmore Girls Season 1, Episode 9, "Rory's Dance": Pop Culture Rewatch

Time Stamps:

  • 00:30 What Happened in Stars Hollow
  • 08:22 The Gilmores' World of Books
  • 12:58 Oy With the Pop Culture Already
  • 17:56 Book Tease

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About Friday Night Readers: Pop Culture Rewatch of Gilmore Girls :

This is an unofficial pop culture rewatch of Gilmore Girls hosted by Friday Night Readers. We dive deep into each episode, featuring the Gilmores’ world of books, as well as their fast talk. Oy, with the pop culture already! Learn what the Gilmores are actually talking about, so you can read and live more like them as you rewatch. Life’s short; read fast!

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Transcripts

Speaker:

Welcome to Friday Night Readers,

an unofficial pop culture

2

:

rewatch of Gilmore Girls.

3

:

We dive deep on each episode featuring

the Gilmore's world of books, as

4

:

well as their fast talk oy with the

pop culture already learn what the

5

:

Gilmores are actually talking about so

you can read and live more like them.

6

:

Life's short read and rewatch fast.

7

:

Welcome back Friday night readers.

8

:

Here's what happened in Stars Hollow in

season one, episode nine, Rory's Dance.

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:

The episode begins at an all

girls Friday night dinner.

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:

Richard is in Prague, Lorelai bemoans

her avocado, but I personally just

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don't understand how anyone can

dislike this mushy, fatty treat.

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:

Emily and Lorelai question Rory

about the Chilton winter formal

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dance, but she's not interested.

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:

This was my sister in high

school, just not interested.

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:

I, on the other hand, despite also being

an introvert and a reader like Rory,

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wanted all the high school experiences.

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Lorelai offers to make Rory a dress,

and this seems to intrigue her lane

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continues to push her outside her

comfort zone, so she asks Dean to

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accompany her and he agrees despite

his disdain for the dress code.

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This wasn't really a problem with the

boys in my high school since we wore

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uniforms every day, but now that I work

from home in my comfy every day, even,

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I cringe at the notion of formalities

like Rory, just not interested.

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Okay.

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Lorelai works on Rory's dress,

despite her increasing back pain.

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My mom actually made me a dress once too.

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My confirmation dress, it was a white

jacquard shift dress with a little jacket.

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Before the internet.

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It wasn't all that easy to find a

white dress that was appropriate for

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a middle schooler to wear to church.

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And this really feels like

a lost art, doesn't it?

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Next Emily calls insults.

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Lorelai then agrees to

come over to see Rory.

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Go to the dance at Chilton.

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Rory reads in the line for tickets for

the dance where Tristin flirts with her.

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She's reading again how novel.

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I feel like this is an underrated

gem of a quote from the show.

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He asks Rory to go with him and

she not so politely declines

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on the night of the dance.

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Rory Primps and Lorelai wonders why since

she's 16 and has a face like a baby's bum.

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In those days, we really didn't primp.

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The cosmetic industry

just wasn't what it is.

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In the time of Sephora and those

getting ready with me videos.

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I recall going to my junior prom

wearing bright blue eyeliner,

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and it wasn't even the eighties.

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Beyond that, the most primping I

did was hoping that the three step

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proactive system from the famous

commercials would cure my acne.

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Now though, I know that even preteens

younger than Rory are really into pimping.

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Rory looks super cute in her

formal dress and Ugg boots.

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I think it is the cutest thing when

teens wear comfy shoes like Chuck

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Taylor's with their formal wear.

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It gives them a sense of growing

up while still being a kid.

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At the same time, I also find Rory's fit

to be pretty true to the time, and that

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definitely includes her baby's breath.

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Encrusted updo.

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The tackier the better in our days.

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Sookie arrives with tacos and

burritos, and she really is the best.

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How happy would you be if your best

friend brought you Mexican grub when

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it was your daughter's first stands and

your back was out, or really anytime?

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One should never pass up a

burrito, but for Lorelai's sake,

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it better not have avocado on it.

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Next.

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Emily arrives and attempts to photograph

Rory with a bib and a burrito.

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Dean honks for Rory and Emily loses it.

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What a savage burn we have here.

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This is not a drive through.

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She's not fried chicken.

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They wait for Dean, and let's be honest,

this is definitely not his fault.

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He and Rory agreed to the honk.

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He handles Emily post AKA Emily

Gilmore with Grace at the dance, the

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very tall, dark, and handsome Dean

impresses, Madeleine and Louise.

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He says he's six two, but I think

he's taller than that after all.

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Later in the series, Jess

calls him Frankenstein.

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According to Google, he's

six foot four inches.

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Emily makes Lorelai mashed banana on

toast, which she apparently loved,

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but seriously, it's really gross.

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She's not a toddler.

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Emily, especially since Sookie

left her a delicious burrito.

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Paris's date.

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Jacob asks Rory out and he reveals

he's actually Paris's cousin.

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Oh, snap.

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Paris definitely has some tough moments

in this series, and this certainly is one.

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Back at the house.

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Lorelai and Emily have a

big mother-daughter moment.

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Emily actually compliments Lorelai on

both the dress and on raising Rory.

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This is huge.

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Things get heated between Dean

and Tristin, and Dean's Burn

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here is just about a savage.

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As an Emily Burn, he tells

Tristin that fighting him would

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be like fighting an accountant.

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Emily Tucks in Lorelai who calls her

mommy, and the moment is so sweet

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that it's almost destined to backfire.

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Things are just not meant to

be this good between these two.

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Dean and Rory grab Coffee and Stars Hollow

and their little walk and talk reminds

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me of the simple beauties of dating.

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It has been so long

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since I left the house after dark,

dressed up and did something this special.

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I'm not complaining by any means.

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I love my cozy nights at home,

but I am just saying that marriage

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is very different from dating.

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Anyway, they sneak into Miss

Patty's where we learned that Rory

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brought her book to the dance.

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You know the quote, I just

take a book with me everywhere.

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It's just habit.

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They read smooch and fall asleep.

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The next morning, Ms.

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Patty's yoga class finds them, and

you just know that every single one

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of those women is going to be talking

about her all day behind her back.

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Rory runs home, shoeless in

the snow, and I can almost

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feel the coldness on her feet.

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She knows this is big.

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At the house, Lorelai and

Emily are freaking out.

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Why, why, why, of all moments did

Emily have to be there for this one?

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Ms.

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Patty calls to notify Lorelai about

finding Rory and Emily Wonders if Ms.

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Patty's is quote a motel.

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Truly, the writing could not

have been better in this scene.

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And now folks, the thunderer

that has rumbled so low and

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slow throughout the series thus

far causes lightning to strike.

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There could be no tensions deeper in

this family than the prospect of Rory

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becoming a teen mom, just like Lorelai.

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Just as Emily and Lorelai took one

step forward, they now take them

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all back to the beginning again,

like a game of chutes and ladders.

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This scene is so definitive of the

relationship between Lorelai and Emily,

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questioning each other's mothering

styles, threatening to lose each other.

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It's like a pressure cooker filled

with decades of conflicts and

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judgements and misunderstandings

all wrapped into one argument.

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Lorelai stands up for her.

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My daughter is my best friend

method of mothering, but Emily comes

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right back at her with this very

direct and very harsh, savage burn.

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Well, if I was so controlling,

why couldn't I control you?

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Running around getting pregnant and

throwing your life away, it stings.

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But at the same time, this is one

instance in which you can empathize

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with the points of view of each Gilmore.

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After all, none of them are perfect

and they each kind of have a point.

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This is why I love the

family drama genre so much.

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It is all shades of gray when you

blend different points of view

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that are forced to engage with each

other on very emotional levels.

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Rory thanks her mom for standing

up for her, but Lorelai is livid.

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I can't blame her.

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That fight and Rory's failure

to come home, were just about as

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tough as it gets in Stars Hollow.

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This fight among all three Gilmore Girls

was absolutely explosive, so I had to

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ask my Instagram followers who won.

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54% of voters said Lorelai.

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29% said Rory, and 17% said, Emily.

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My vote is for Rory.

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I think she just made an honest

teenage mistake and tried to

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rectify it as soon as possible.

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It's just that no one trusts the teen.

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So far, these episodes have ended

with all being well in Stars Hollow,

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but here they very much aren't.

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The Gilmore's world of books.

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Let's break down the

Gilmore's world of books.

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This episode's most iconic

literary references for those

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taking the Rory Gilmore Reading

Challenge with us on Friday night.

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readers.substack.com

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where we read from the list of

books mentioned on Gilmore Girls.

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First Lorelai jokingly says that she and

Rory should quote, go to Turkey and stay

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in that place from Midnight Express.

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Here, we don't know if she's

talking about the book or the

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movie, so I'm going with a book.

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It centers on a young American

student sent to a Turkish prison,

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and it's based on a memoir.

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In line for tickets to the dance.

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Rory reads, the group by Mary McCarthy.

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This number one New York Times

bestseller and National Book Award

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finalist is a feminist title like

we so often see Rory Reading.

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It follows eight Vassar graduates from

the class of:

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love, work, and identity in New York.

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It's both sharp and satirical its

exploration of female friendship,

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sexuality, and social expectations.

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Groundbreaking for its time.

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Hugely popular, and just as controversial.

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It's now regarded as a precursor

to shows like Sex in the City.

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I've never read it, but it is

definitely very high on my list.

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Tristin tells Rory that quote, the man is

supposed to buy the dance ticket, and Rory

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Wonders if Susan Faludi knew about that.

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Faludi is an American journalist

and feminist author known for

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her sharp critiques of gender

roles and media culture.

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Next.

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Lorelai introduces Dean to

her mother as Emily Post.

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She was an American socialite,

best known for her influential

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writings on etiquette and manners.

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Now, very famously, Rory brings the

portable Dorothy Parker to the dance.

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Born at the turn of the 20th century.

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Dorothy Parker was a highly quotable

American writer, poet, and critic,

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known for her sharp wit and social

commentary often filled with themes

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of loneliness and disillusionment.

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Which was very prominent

in writing at the time.

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Now, if you've heard Taylor Swift sing

about the Algonquin, then you should

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know that Dorothy Parker was a founding

member of the Algonquin Roundtable,

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and this was a group of New York

ters and intellectuals in the:

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I've never read her work, but I did

snag a copy of this book at my local

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library sale, so I definitely plan

to, it was such an amazing score.

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One final thing I want to note is

that the line Dean quotes is from

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the poem Coda by Dorothy Parker.

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There's little in taking or giving,

there's little in water or wine.

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This living, this living, this

living was never a project of mine.

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I've linked the full poem

in the show notes for you.

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It's pretty short and I definitely

shows her disillusionment

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and how jaded she was about life.

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Then Rory refers to Dean

as her quote gentleman.

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Caller, this is from The Glass

Menagerie by Tennessee Williams,

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one of my favorite plays.

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It's considered to be a memory play

because it's told from the perspective

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of one character, so it's a single point

of view, and it's not contemporaneous

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Set in a low class St.

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Louis apartment in the 1930s.

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It offers a window into a few

relatively inconsequential moments

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in the lives of the Wingfield

family, showing the stronghold that

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memory has had over their happiness.

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In some ways, it even reminds me of

the Great Gatsby and that famous line.

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So we beat on boats against the current

born back ceaselessly into the past.

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That's very much what's happening in the

Glass Menagerie as our narrator Southern

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Bell mother attempts to set his painfully

shy sister up with a gentleman caller, if

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you read the play, I definitely recommend

diving deeper into its theme of memory.

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It's really brilliant how it's done.

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I actually love this literary device

so much that I wrote all about the

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theme of memory and how it shows up in

the glass menagerie as a memory play.

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And I'm going to link that

in the show notes for you.

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Moving along.

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In Return Lane calls Rory, be

Blanche from a street car named

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Desire by Tennessee Williams.

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Another great play, Setin

Post-War, new Orleans.

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It tells the story of Blanche De Bois, a

fading southern bell who moves in with her

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sister, Stella and brother-in-law Stanley

Kowalski after losing her family's estate.

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The play explore themes

of desire, illusion, class

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conflict, and mental decay.

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As blanche's fragile fantasy world

clashes with Stanley's brutal realism.

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I love this reference for this

episode, especially since the

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family tensions also run high here.

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And we'll learn more about this book in

an episode to come think Lorelai yelling.

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I'm curious about every single book

mentioned in this Gilmore Girls episode.

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Even the obscure references

most people miss, like Louise's

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Shakespearean reference.

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Head to this episode's

page at Friday night.

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readers.substack.com

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paid members get printable episode

guides for every Gilmore Girls episode,

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which are perfect for tracking your

own Rory inspired reading journey

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oy with the pop culture already.

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Now because I want you to understand

even more of the Gilmore Girls Fast talk.

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Here's what some of this episode's best

pop culture references mean fashion.

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At Friday Night Dinner.

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Rory's wearing a multicolored

striped sweater similar to her

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striped scarf from Love and war

and Snow, and I'm nearly positive.

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This is from gap.

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As I've mentioned a few times on this

podcast so far, I worked there at the

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time and these multicolored stripes were

called crazy stripes, and every winter

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season when we got the new version,

they sold out almost immediately.

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By the way, they still release

crazy stripe sweaters to this day.

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It just so happens that as I was

filming this podcast, I saw this

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year's gap ad, and it does include

a bunch of crazy stripe sweaters.

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So I am including a YouTube video

for that in the show notes for you.

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Movies.

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Lorelai says she answered the door.

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We are in here because she

was a lot of Saran wrap.

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Y'all, I know this reference,

which Emily can't grasp.

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You can see a playout for yourself in the

movie adaptation of Fried Green Tomatoes.

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This 1987 book and 1991

film were so popular.

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The story moves between

the:

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In the later years, an elderly woman

tells a frustrated younger wife, played

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by Kathy Bates, the story of two women

running a small town cafe in Alabama.

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It explores themes of friendship.

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Feminism identity, love, and resilience.

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In one hilarious scene, Kathy Bates

answers the door dressed in Saran

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wrap to surprise her grumpy husband,

who in turn just ignores her.

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It's an iconic scene and also a

very cozy, comforting feel good

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film if you're in the mood for one.

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I've been gravitating to simple

old movies this year, and this one

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definitely fits the mold in the car.

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On the way to the dance, Rory and Dean

discussed the Outsider's movie adaptation.

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Rory calls herself the Pony Boy of Chilton

set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the story follows,

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pony Boy Curtis, a teenager, caught in the

rivalry between two groups, the working

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class Greasers and the Wealthy Socs.

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So Rory is spot on with this comparison.

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There are a few things I want you

to know about this book slash movie.

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First.

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The book is the most popular choice

among readers in our book club who

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are reading the Gilmore Girls books.

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My guess is that it's the blend

of being classic, short, fairly

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easy and culturally relevant

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And Fun Fact Hinton published

the Outsiders at age 18.

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You can read her.

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Yes.

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That's her letter to her editor.

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In the show notes.

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It definitely seems a male would've

written this book about conflict between

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teenage boys, but nope, it was a girl.

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Personally, I like the 1983

movie a little bit more.

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It's star-studded and it just raised the

stakes more for me, seeing this tragic

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conflict play out versus reading about it.

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That said, I highly recommend

both to true Gilmores.

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Of the 500 plus titles on our

list, this one just always

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rises to the top for readers.

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Next.

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Lorelai and Emily watched Double

Indemnity together in this:

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An insurance salesman is seduced by an

alluring woman into plotting her husband's

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murder to collect on a life insurance

policy with a double indemnity clause.

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This pays double for accidental deaths.

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And this is what Lorelai is talking

about when she says her mother has

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a voice like Barbara Stanwick and

quote, could have gotten Fred McMurray

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to off Dad, if you really wanted to.

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Famous people.

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We have two here that I've actually

never heard of and had to rely

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on my research for it first.

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Lorelai says that maybe Rory will become

a crazy Oscar Levant kind of celebrity.

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He was a beloved but troubled American

pianist, composer, and actor, known for

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both his self-deprecating humor and his

public struggles with mental health.

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Then Rory encourages Tristin to

ask Squeaky Fromme who she's heard

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is up for parole out to the dance.

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She is a former member of Charles

Manson's family cult, known for her

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1975 attempted assassination of US

President Gerald Ford by referring

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to her parole in the year 2000.

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Rory was several years ahead of

her time, but Fromme was indeed

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later released from prison in 2009.

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Music.

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The slow song played at Rory's

Dance is the ever Beautiful

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Fade into You by Mazzy Star.

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This was a very highly

regarded song at the time.

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I could have sworn it was also

featured in the popular:

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adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

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But my research proved me wrong.

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If anyone knows why I am making

that connection, please let me know.

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It's one of those things that's

really going to bother me.

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In the meantime, I'm linking

all the pop culture in which

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fade into you does appear.

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And let me tell you, it is a lot.

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The last one fact of the day is that

my husband wanted this to be our

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wedding song, but I said no because

it's five minutes long, and I promised

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him that he would not want to dance

for five minutes straight with 100

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sets of eyeballs staring at him.

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Suffice it to say I chose a two minutes

song, and it was still very awkward.

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What can I say?

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We're introverts book teases.

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Lastly, the time has come for me to be

what just called Rory, a book tease.

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Tune in next week when we dive into

episode one point 10, forgiveness and

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stuff, and books like Metamorphosis,

which Rory buys for Dean for Christmas.

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This is one of my favorite episodes, so

I can't wait to talk to you about it.

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See you then.

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