Mallory's Camera

Posted by Matthew McQuilkin

https://www.fruitcakeenterprises.com/blog/2025/5/22/pub-and-prejudice

— पांच हजार आठ सौ अठारह —

Shobhit's really going out of his way to wind up with a massive amount of Social Review points for Spring this year. He already has a leg up coming with our trip to Washington, D.C. next month, which covers eight days including travel days, and thus will garner him 8 Social Review points for those days alone.

He's already at 27 points. Even outside the Washington, D.C. trip, he's on track to get another 6, at minimum, by June 20. Add to that the 8 for D.C. and he'll wind up with at least 41 points. If he has ever gotten that many points before, it's been many years.

Laney, incidentally, is currently at 16. She's on track to get another 10 by June 20, assuming she doesn't have to cancel any (it's a bit touch and go right now, as she's battling a cold she's just hoping to have recovered from by Saturday). That'll make a total of 26. Even that will be one less than she got in the winter! (When Shobhit managed 36.)

Anyway. An unexpected Social Review point for Shobhit last night: he invited me to come and join him at Madison Pub after I got home from work, where he had met up for Happy Hour with some of the guys he met at the potluck event he went to in Everett last weekend. There were three main guys sitting with him at the table near the back of the bar. One was a guy named Christophe who was German, but has lived here since 2004.

The other two guys were clearly the reason Shobhit was eager to have me join them, and meet these guys. One was named Drew, and he works for King County Metro. The other was named Mike, and he recently retired from a long career at Sound Transit. Two different public transit guys! They had a lot of knowledge about both current and historic public transit here in Seattle, so we had a lot to talk about. It was really fun. I learned that in the forties, there was a major transfer spot between a cable car and electric streetcars on Pine and 14th, right by where our condo is now! I was amazed. Actually maybe it was Pike and 14th, I can't remember. Pike would make more sense, as he said the cable car went up Madison. Still that's only a block from our condo.

He said he wrote something on the history of transit here once and had lots of historical photos. I would be very eager to see some of them.

Shobhit is a lightweight when it comes to drinking, and he had two by the time I made my way over—Madison Pub is less than two blocks away, itself being just down Madison from 14th. Drew offered me a drink, and I accepted: I had a screw driver. I figured I'd order something simple. If I were buying my own I might have gotten a Moscow Mule. Anyway, Drew offered Shobhit another and he declined, saying two was his limit and that any more would make him "really obnoxious." He added something to the effect of, "I'm already obnoxious," but he wasn't really that bad. Although when Mike left a while later and Shobhit got up to hug him goodbye, he knocked my cocktail off the table, where it shattered. The employee who came to clean it up was very gracious. I only had maybe a quarter of my drink left anyway.

I will admit to having some slight ambivalence about going over to meet them, having no idea what to expect. I did know already that they were all older guys. Mike has family all over Washington, including in Shelton, so that became a topic for a bit—I noted that my dad was born there in 1955, and Drew noted that even this was later than whenever Mike was born. But whatever, I found the conversation delightful, which Shobhit clearly expected when he found out how closely associated both Drew and Mike are with public transit.

Drew is apparently leaving for a trip to Ireland this weekend with his sister. There happened to be a map of Ireland on the wall right above our table. He talked a lot about the extensive rail system there. I noted that I have some Irish heritage myself, although the best I can ever get is "Scotch-Irish" and I have no idea which one my family name originated in. I know Scottish and Irish people prefer clarity on the difference so this seems kind of unfortunate to me.

— पांच हजार आठ सौ अठारह —

— पांच हजार आठ सौ अठारह —

On my bike ride home, I swung by the Central Library, to pick up both my next book, which I hadn't even realized was available (Heretics of Dune), and a DVD copy of the 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice. So, when Shobhit and I walked back home after our drinks at Madison Pub, and once Shobhit had dished himself some dinner, we sat down to watch it.

He was pretty sure he had watched it not long ago, maybe last year. I'm pretty sure I had not watched it since it was first released in 2005. It recently got a 20th anniversary re-release that I never made it to, but it was of mind for that reason, and so I just checked it out of the library.

I really, really enjoyed it. Many people love the Colin Firth miniseries from 1995 best, but I prefer this one. It's so well cast, so well acted, and gorgeously shot. Especially considering how much less it could include from the book than the miniseries, I was quite impressed by how well adapted it was. I just found it thoroughly delightful on basically every level.

— पांच हजार आठ सौ अठारह —

[posted 12:31pm]

https://www.fruitcakeenterprises.com/blog/2025/5/22/pub-and-prejudice