Observation & Speculation

I’m sitting directly underneath I-5 bridge on the north shore of lake Union. It’s sunny and peaceful. I’m watching kayakers row past, dogs catching Frisbees, and hear the roar of early evening traffic directly overhead.

Today turned out to be an exceptionally good day in the lab (i.e. my monkeys worked without breaking things, I learned what household metallic objects become deadly projectiles in the vicinity of MRI magnets, etc). Good enough for me to jet from the lab at 4pm without any reservations or guilt. I walked to Ivar’s Whale-Maker Lounge and promptly consumed three pints of Manny’s pale ale, a green salad and a plate of herb-dusted calamari. My fried food craving has been sated for the week. While seated, I attempted to grasp the effect of “diluted connections” on memory capacity of Hopfield neural network models.

I failed miserably.

Feeling less than happy with myself, I raised my head and noticed an attractive couple just seated at a table directly in front of mine. Both were nicely dressed (i.e. dating attire) and both drank fancy-pants garnished cocktails probably poured with top-shelf liquors. They seemed chill enough (despite my gawking)—that is, they seemed to be enjoying themselves but didn’t let out any gut-busting guffaws or anything. None of this is unusual for happy hour at Ivar’s. What caught my attention was the woman (or more precisely, the girl) had to have been less than half of the age of the man. My first thought: “Damn, that guy’s got it goin’ on! I should stay and take notes in case I’m ever his age and single.” He definitely had the whole Cadillac-commercial-“welcome-to-the-club-of-distinguished-gentlemen”-gentlemen vibe going for him.

I was fascinated. Then I looked closer. Their faces seemed to bear a slight familial resemblance…

Now I ask you, what man of 55-60 takes his college age daughter drinking at a cocktail lounge? Maybe I’m grasping for possibilities that refute the guy’s modjo (or whatever you want to call it) but if they were actually father and daughter enjoying cocktails at 5pm on a Monday afternoon, that’s a smidge taboo isn’t it? Sorry to get puritanical about social conventions, but their little get-together made me feel dirty. At that point I would have actually preferred that the guy had some magical allure rather than contemplate the alternative. Hopefully, that man is simply a professor taking an extracurricular interest in one of his doting students–or something innocent like that.