I’d prefer that my dinner companions be alive, and that our foodstuffs be dead.
Other than my deceased parents and best friend George, I could imagine choosing Thomas Jefferson, Leonardo Da Vinci. Ben Franklin would be a good choice. I’d invite Jesus, but wouldn’t want to risk having an empty chair…
So, is this like a personal one-on-one, a group outing at Chili’s, or a big festive banquet?
Personally, I’d love to have a nice romantic candlelit dinne with Marilyn Monroe.
Unfortunately, I think I’d end up chosing Jesus as well due to the fact that, well, it’d have a lot more meaning to my overall developement and help answer some of those ever so important questions one wrestles with during their life time. Like, what the hell was God thinking when he created slime? And why do I have nipples?
I’ve always said “Thomas Jefferson,” but have since learned that he wasn’t much of a conversationalist around the dinner table. Instead, he liked to listen to other people talk and he’d take notes sureptiously (sp?). One on one he enjoyed conversation, but he had a weak voice and he was hard to hear in a crowd.
Absent TJ, I’d like to have dinner with Lincoln (but not when he was depressed), Lewis and Clark, Churchill, and Eleanor of Aquitane.
I’m sure I’ve posted this before, but mine would be Ben Jonson. Shakespeare would be interesting, but I suspect he didn’t gossip much, and Ben certainly did.
Dead or alive doesn’t quite cover it for me. I’d invite Ronald Reagan, but I’ll take a more coherent and lucid state than he is currently in. Give me Reagan (circa 1984), Buck O’Neill, and Steve Martin.
I can picture going two ways with this. The person you most would like to spend some time with is one way to choose. Princess Di or MLK would be good choices for this. However, there isn’t much to learn from them. Most of what they stood for and believed is already known. You can read volumes about them and what they were about. They also knew a society very similar to the one today because of the times in which they lived.
I would find it more interesting to see the take on the current makup of the world to a great thinker or leader from distant past. Chatting with Ben Franklin and what he thinks of the US today comes to mind. Or, getting Ghandi’s imput on the current situations in Isreal and Tibet.
What happens if I choose a character that turns out to be fictional? If I ask to have my dinner with Jesus and he never shows up does that mean I now know that God doesn’t exist? If so, it would be worth it to dine (or not dine) with him just to find out.
Of course, rather than my 3 above, I could choose to solve mysterious quandries.
I’ll take the man who planned the majority of JFK’s assassination, Deep Throat, and Jack the Ripper. The conversation would stink, but the media would give it great coverage.
And since I am neither a major political figure or an English prostitute, I wouldn’t have to worry about my safety much.
Yeah, but you know he’d pull a dine-and-dash on you.
Why do people want to dine with Princess Diana? Perfectly nice young lady, but about as interesting and insightful as any broad you’d pull off the subway. Me, I’d want to dine with my four biography subjects, to find out what I got right and what I got wrong.