# If you could sit down with any person, living or dead... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 18, 2004, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-sit-down-with-any-person-living-or-dead/269837 "2004-10-18T15:20:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-sit-down-with-any-person-living-or-dead/269837/41 "2004-10-19T12:11:08Z")
I’d give anything just to play cribbage with my Dad. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-sit-down-with-any-person-living-or-dead/269837/42 "2004-10-19T12:21:34Z")
I’d go with a dead person. ---
**Author:** ![35340](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/8baadc/32.png) [@35340](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/35340)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-sit-down-with-any-person-living-or-dead/269837/43 "2004-10-19T12:31:39Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > You’ll understand if Jenna, Barbara and Laura don’t share your sense of humor. Yeah, or his mom either. I think the one that doesn’t fit, Aesiron, is Nero. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-sit-down-with-any-person-living-or-dead/269837/44 "2004-10-19T13:01:24Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > I’d give anything just to play cribbage with my Dad. In that vein, I’d give anything, anything at all, to have one more conversation with my Aunt Phyllis. ---
**Author:** ![hlanelee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@hlanelee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hlanelee)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-sit-down-with-any-person-living-or-dead/269837/45 "2004-10-19T13:25:59Z")
Solomon…his wisdom transcends time, gender, and location. ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-sit-down-with-any-person-living-or-dead/269837/46 "2004-10-20T10:07:01Z")
\ I think the important - the really, really important - thing here is to remember to include ‘…and someone to translate’. I don’t know about you, but I reckon it’d be most terribly disappointing to get a meeting with Solomon, Hitler, Jesus, Freud, and so forth, and then not be able to understand a word they said. Though in the case of Hitler, I dare say that the chance to b\*tch-slap that guy would make up for the linguistic problems. 😉 And of course, I could always do charades to get my point across to Freud. _evil grin_ ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-sit-down-with-any-person-living-or-dead/269837/47 "2004-10-20T10:09:25Z")
> [@Khiadra](#): > > And of course, I could always do charades to get my point across to Freud. _evil grin_ Not that it would matter, because they’d all translate to Penis or Mother anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-sit-down-with-any-person-living-or-dead/269837/48 "2004-10-23T04:21:17Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > Not that it would matter, because they’d all translate to Penis or Mother anyway. I was pretty much intending for both of those to go together…it would have been the ‘hey you’ that’d be hard to act out. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-sit-down-with-any-person-living-or-dead/269837/49 "2004-10-23T05:47:44Z")
> [@Khiadra](#): > > I was pretty much intending for both of those to go together…it would have been the ‘hey you’ that’d be hard to act out. 😉 Hah! Well played. Second/third/whatever the Ben Franklin noms. That guy was SMRT! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-sit-down-with-any-person-living-or-dead/269837/50 "2004-10-23T07:15:59Z")
Most of my “dead” picks are taken. Benjamin Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Einstein, Douglas Adams, Shakespeare, Lennon and Mencken would all be high on the list. I’d add F. Scott Fitzgerald, Groucho Marx, and Duane Allman. The latter of which I’d probably jam with in addition to talking. If we stuck to conversation I’d ask him if he wouldn’t mind laying off the coke during my stay. 😛 Some living nominees: Matt Groening, Bill Clinton, John Kerry. I suppose the journalist in me is talking there. It’s not a matter of loving the latter two as much as it is wanting to know more about how their minds work. Okay, I’ll be a tough guy and pick just one. Err… this would be easier if I had a wheel to spin… I’m gonna go with Thomas Jefferson, I’d love to know his actual take on the Constitution, the current state of this country and the world, and many other topics. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-sit-down-with-any-person-living-or-dead/269837/51 "2004-10-24T01:44:15Z")
I had to give myself some parameters first to narrow it down. I would like to meet someone funny, creative, talented, dedicated and a generally nice person. To wit, I submit to the list: Victor Borge. Can’t imagine a day better spent in conversation and the general enjoyment of life. ---
**Author:** ![Blown\_Injected](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@Blown\_Injected](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blown_Injected)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-sit-down-with-any-person-living-or-dead/269837/52 "2004-10-24T10:04:27Z")
Sgt. Shultz. Come on now - Were you really an Allied spy? Surprised I have not noticed some early scientists [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-sit-down-with-any-person-living-or-dead/269837.md?page=2)