When did the construction on the Stroger building begin? If Fool Moon takes place in October of 2002, that only leaves one, maybe two months until it opens. OTOH, if it takes place in 2001, that leaves a full year and a bit.
I actually had/have no idea when the construction began, but
Google says sometime in 1998. I'm not sure what this may or may not do to any potentially 'real-time' numbered timeline. (Personally, my money's on "not do"; just saying.
)
Also, it just occurred to me that the first chapters of Grave Peril also take place at Cook, almost exactly a year later. this would seem to force the issue, dating Grave Peril to 2002 and Fool Moon, and consequently Storm Front, to 2001 - literally, "The end of the twentieth century and the dawn of the new millennium".
... Opps. I remember intending to go and check
Grave Peril before I said anything, but managed to forget entirely. Your memory, it is better than mine!
The problem with this is that it compresses all the books between Fool Moon (or Grave Peril) and Small Favor into one year (2003). This is clearly impossible, as numerous places in the books (referenced in the timeline) refer to months passing between each book - I believe the longest gap is between Death Masks and Blood Rites, which if I'm reading right seems to be more than a year and a half.
However, there was more than one "that pirate movie", the latest of which came out in 2007 and, assuming Small Favor takes place in November 2009* (!), that leaves plenty of time for it to trickle down to the drive-in, which I assume probably isn't very high on the blockbuster distribution chain. Actually, by that logic, it could, in fact, be the first "pirate movie".
Durr. I re-read, and realise that I never really finished my thought, before. I believe I got distracted by the image of poor Harry valiantly sitting through the actually-named "Pirates" with his skull, and started laughing too hard to think; at least, that's my story. Stickin' to it. (In case no one actually knows what I'm talking about, it's the type of movie old Lord Raith's movie company would have made.)
I was willing to concede the impossible timeline crunch to the rather tricky business of time-sensitive cultural references in writing, but your reasoning works so much better. Harry must have to wait a ridiculously long time to see some movies. (Heh. Especially as the drive-in in Aurora
may be closed.)
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