I know…unless a time machine is invented I’ll never realize this dream! But anyway, here are a few people i would like to meet and talk to:
Albert Einstein
Benjamin Franklin
Alexander Graham Bell
George Washington
Abraham Lincoln
Douglas Adams
Confucius
Jim Henson
People who are still living;
Stephen Hawking
Steve Jobs
Steve Wozniak
Gigi Edgely
Anthony Simcoe
Lani Tupu
Wayne Pygram
Ben Browder
Claudia Black
Jonathan Hardy
Brian Henson
Arthur Currie (Canadian general, circa WWI)
Ben Franklin for me. I want to know if he was really the woman’s man he’s made out to be. Also like to talk science with him.
My problem with going back in time to meet “celebraties” is being there long enough (a lifetime) to understand the background in which they exist. Just meeting and talking to a historic figure is not enough IMHO. I would need the context.
Oops and Leonardo DaVinci and NOT because of that new stupid book.
The Buddha.
Cardinal Richelieu
Gustav Adolphus
Catherine the Great
Yoshitsune
Ulysses S. Grant
Harry Truman
Yamamoto Isoroku
‘Gypsy’ Rose Lee
Though, I can’t see why anyone would want to meet and talk to Josef Stalin.
George Washington
Thomas Hobbes
Michaelangelo
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Queen Anne and Prince George (so I can see who my school and my county are named after)
Wolfgang Mozart
Thomas Edison
Amelia Earheart
Ida B. Wells Barnett
John Locke
Jesus, just to ask him about how he feels about all the trouble he’s caused.
Robin Hood (Assuming he’s a single person not a hybrid of outlaws/legend. Jury’s out on that one…)
Marion (See above)
Dorothy Parker
Mae West
Jean Harlow
Katherine Hepburn
Twelve year old Jesus Christ.
Thirty three year old Jesus Christ.
Moses
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Stalin
Abraham Lincoln
Mohammed
Napoleon
Isaac Newton. I figure if I can get him laid, he’ll have fewer hang-ups and get more useful work done.
[ul]
[li]Charles Dickens, if only to thank him for “A Christmas Carol” (I find most of his other works to be ponderous reading).[/li][li]Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain[/li][li]Jack Benny[/li][li]Abraham Lincoln[/li][li]Abraham (the patriarch – I suspect I’d need a translator).[/li][li]Solomon, if only to ask him how can a man so renound for wisdom make the mistake of marrying so many women? Sheesh! I’d be satisfied with one![/li][/ul]
I’m afraid I’ve read too much about the ancient world (for me, anything before the age of enlightenment) to think I’d enjoy the company of very many people who had to survive in the social environment of such times. Heck, if you go back only 30-50 years you find many accepted attitudes towards race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., that you will find distasteful.
–SSgtBaloo
Colette (who lived where the previously mentioned Cardinal Richelieu had lived)
Michael Collins
Rosa Parks (living)
Madame George Sand
George and Ira Gershwin
Ernest and Hadley Hemingway
Frida Kahlo
Bernadette Devlin
Ezra Pound
Josephine Baker
Cole Porter
Gee, I need to branch out a little…
Tristan Tzara
Marcel Duchamp
Salvador Dali
Max Ernst
Hieronymus Bosch
Emperor Norton
Igor Stravinsky
Edgard Varese
John Lennon
George Harrison
Jimi Hendrix, preferably in one of his more lucid states
Frank Zappa
Leonardo da Vinci
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Albrecht Dürer
Diogenes the Cynic (the original one, although I’m sure his Doper namesake is a swell fellow as well)
Rasputin
Adolf Hitler
Ilse Koch
Mahatma Gandhi
Martin Luther King Jr.
Lao Tzu
Chuang Tzu
Lin-chi
Spike Jones
Odin and Thor and any other Viking gods, if their mythological qualities are in any way derived from traits of real Scandinavian leaders
King Harald Fairhair of Norway
Snorri Sturluson
Leif Eiriksson
Richard Feynman
James Joyce
Genghis Khan
Stanley Kubrick
Robert Heinlein
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Franklin
(not a complete list, just what I thought of off the top of my head)
The reason I would like to meet and talk to this guy…I would like to understand how any human being could send MILLIONS of innocent people to their deaths, without it bothering him one bit!
Also, I’d like to know if he (Stalin) was friendly or miserable to his friends/enemies! 
Let’s make it a little harder - you can’t list more than one person from a particular discipline (for instace, you can’t list more than one President, dictator, religous leader, etc.)
Thomas Jefferson, but not George Washington. Jefferson was well-read, thoughtful on a variety of subjects, and enjoyed company (even though he much preferred to listen to what his guests had to say rather than sharing much of his own opinion). Washington, while an able leader, doesn’t seem to have had much personality. From all accounts, he was a bit of a stick in the mud.
Michelangelo, but not Da Vinci. I want to sit and talk with the man that could produce the Pieta. Plus, I get the impression that he was a bit of a independent, free spirit.
The Buddah, but not Jesus. I’m sure Jesus was a pretty hip guy (I wish I could find a T-shirt with the Laughing Jesus on it), but I picture him as incredibly low key. The Buddah would probably be good for both conversation and laughs. Plus, I don’t think I’d like the dessert.
Chico Marx, but not Groucho Marx. Chico, from what I can gather, was a gas. Womanizer, gambler, man about town. Groucho, from what I can gather, was a prick.
My great grandfather, bu not my grandfather. I’ve talked to several relatives about my grandfather so I’ve got a good impression of him (good guy all around), but no one alive ever met my great grandfather.
Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s first minister. A very two-sided figure in history: facilitated the printing of the first authorized Bible in English, but also initiated secret trials under Star Chamber. The political force behind not only the Anglican Church as we now know it, but also the world’s first attempt at a modern dictatorial state. Held an iron hand over his political enemies, but couldn’t even control his disappointment of a son. Sent many foes to the block, but ended up separated from his own head, too.
I wrote my master’s thesis on him, and I’d like to know what he thinks of it.