The Daria Annotation File:
Is It College Yet?

The banner Tom has in the introduction reads simply "State".

The shirt Andrea is wearing in the "burning her bra" scene of the introduction reads "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle".

The restaurant the Fashion Club takes Stacy too (and Quinn later gets a job at) is named Governor's Park.

The text on Mr. O'Neill's board is about "The Man in the Iron Mask".

Quinn says the hostess thing is her first job, but she's had at least one before. In "It Happened One Nut" she worked, briefly, in a pet store at the mall.

Tom's parents met at a free Carpenters concert.

The MacArthur Prize is more correctly known as the MacArthur Fellowship Grant. Recipient get $500,000 over the course of five years, no strings attached. In the Foundations own words: "The MacArthur Fellowship is a five-year grant to individuals who show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work. The program selects individuals of all ages and from all fields and offers recipients flexibility to pursue their work without reporting requirements."

"Rope" is a Hitchcock film. As Tom states, it's about two prep school students who decide to try to commit the perfect murder by killing one of their classmates. What Tom doesn't mention is that this is brought about after they and their headmaster muse on the "art of murder", and decide that "superior people" should be allowed to commit murder (defining "superior" as "being able to get away with it", basically).
A couple of other features of note, the entire film was done on a single set. It was also done in a series of continuous takes, limited only by the amount of film the cameras would hold. No other editing was done to the film.

Mr. DeMartino and Mr. O'Neill meet at "The Liquid Dinner". This term is usually used as a euphemism for getting drunk.

All the cheerleaders get accepted to "Great Prairie State University". The phrase "great prairie state" is used to refer to several US states, including Illinois, Kentucky, and Kansas.

Jodie is putting up posters for a used book sale. Makes you wonder how much business they could get from Lawndale High.

Jane's line about driving a car into someone's pool seems to be a reference to something, but I'm not sure of the spelling of the name she used.

Daria's comment about Spunky is a reference to a page in "The Daria Diaries", where Jane makes fun of an art correspondence school.

Mr. O'Neill orders a Mai Tai. Although there are a number of variations, this seems to be the original recipe
2 ounces of 17-year old J. Wray & Nephew Rum over shaved ice.
Add juice from one fresh lime.
1/2 ounce Holland DeKuyper Orange Curacao.
1/4 ounce Trader Vic's Rock Candy Syrup.
1/2 ounce French Garier Orgeat Syrup
Shake vigorously.
Add a sprig of fresh mint

Mr. DeMartino has a line running "Take back the night!" This phrase has been very extensively used for all manner of things. I have as of yet been unable to track down any origin for the phrase.

The movies playing at the theater when Quinn and Lindy left were "2 Funny Cops" and "Weepy Mr. B Forever".

Laryngitis shouldn't last longer than two weeks, so either the colleges were unusually quick on handling applications or time was ignored for plot.

The potion Stacy orders consists of cayenne pepper, cooking oil, and some big long name I couldn't make out.

Lindy gets caught drinking a screwdriver at work, which is simply orange juice mixed with vodka.

Mr. DeMartino has a list of summer jobs that "build character" on his chalkboard. They are: prison guard, cement mixer, well digger, kennel cleaner, and animator.

The Azores are a group of islands near Portugal. They seem to be more vulnerable to earthquakes than monsoons.

Jake's comment about the book by "Mr. Spock" is probably meant to refer to Dr. Spock's book, "Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care".

Dian Fossey was the writer of "Gorillas in the Mist". This was based on her work in isolation from humans, observing gorillas and their behavior.

In the shots of Daria and Jane sitting at graduation, the first shot shows a collection of the usual background characters behind them. The second shot, of Daria alone, shows Charles and Andrea sitting behind her.


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