Apparently Denise Richards went to (but did not graduate from) my high school so I’d prefer to just have dinner with her. I was going to stock the other three seats with the few other minor television actresses my school produced but they’re all in an unfortunate spot (for this experiment) where they’re well on in years but not deceased to bring back in their prime as “historic”.
So it’d be me, Denise Richards and three old women talking about their bit roles from the 70s and early 80s.
I think the whole dinner thing is just a pretense to talk about people who went to your high school. Go with the executive and sitcom guy–no one really cares, anyway.
We only had two. One, Bryan Hughes, is running for state senate after serving as a rep for Lord knows how many years. He was (maybe still is?) a best friend of my ex-fiancé. Class of '88, despite what the wiki says.
The other is recent country singing star, Kacey Musgraves. She graduated in '06.
Other than that, Miranda Lambert is from one town over, as was Sissy Spacek in the other direction. However, I’m sure I’m missing some sports stars. Meh.
My high school has only been around since 1976. As large as it is (~4500 students), in a large city (San Jose), I’ve never heard of any of the people in the “notable alumni” list on the school’s Wikipedia page.
No one interesting went to my old school, so can I switch to my brother’s instead? It dates back to the late 1200s…
The only two who are particularly notable internationally are musician Neil Young and actress Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny in early James Bond films). Canadians might know actor Don McKellar, actress Fiona Reid, and journalist Beverly Thomson, all of whom went to my high school; but let’s keep things simple and well-known:
For a four-person dinner, Neil Young, Lois Maxwell, my sister, and me. The conversation would be interesting.
Jack Nicklaus, Beverly D’Angelo, Wendy (Thomas), and George Smoot.
We’d have nothing whatsoever in common to discuss, though.
There are only two non-politicians on the Notable People list for my home town who would have gone to high school there. One is stage magician Tom Mullica, ten years younger than me and I never heard of his family. The other is Magdalen Redman, a baseball player from the League-or-their-own era, and I knew her family.
Another would be John Van Hengel, noted for founding the first Food Bank in the USA.
I’m may be the most famous person to graduate from my high school, and that’s a relatively low bar. Maybe my aunt, who was a concert pianist might be known. IIRC, a graduate won a Golden Globe this year in some technical capacity.
It was a small high school in a rural area. Plenty had successful lives, but no one had the type of career that anyone would recognize their name.
I’d probably invite a few of my classmates.
I’d invite:
Governor Ben Cayetano Ben Cayetano - Wikipedia
and three classmates
Judge Eleanor Oducayen
Associate Justice Simeon Acoba
I normally shy away from these kind of "What if?"s.
In this case, I think I’m stuck at two: A Congresscritter and a Miss America. The first I’ve already spent time with and I guess I could do a little bit of catching up, but then there’s not much else to talk about. The 2nd? Pluh-eez, I think my fish is sick and I can’t make it.
See why?
Wiki has a long list of notable alumni from my HS: List of Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni - Wikipedia.
Here are four I would like to invite. The first three came to my mind unbidden (#1 was an actual classmate of mine):
James DePriest (Orchestra conductor, Oregon Symphony, among others)
Noam Chomsky (no comment needed)
Charles Goren (early bridge player, guru, writer)
Louis J. Mordell (world class mathematician who announced while still in HS that he would become a professor of mathematics at Cambridge–and did)
I actually attended 3 different high schools, one was in the 7th grade, a large public school, no idea if anyone from there would have a recognizable name. Another public school in the 10th grade, no one I know of, but maybe somebody known to the public in all the time it’s been around. The final school was really small, I don’t know of anyone from there that would qualify. Even now I think they only have about 100 students each year.
ETA: Holy crap! Daniel Snyder, asshole owner of the Washington Redskins graduated for Charles W. Woodward High School, where I attended 7th grade.
My hick ass little public high school has existed for 46 years, and probably about 5000 students have passed through. As far as I know, not a single one of them is the least bit famous. An American Idol semi-finalist was from my home town but I’m pretty sure she went to the parochial school two towns over.
Wow, this mental image of three reality TV game show contestants waiting for Robin Zander to show up for dinner is really depressing.
My high school has no one well known that has graduated from it. Three men played for the NFL but none of them did particularly well. (that’s not to say it isn’t great they got to play pro ball and having three pro ball players during a 20 year period from a tiny little school in the middle of nowhere is pretty darn good. ) I think one of them only made it off the practice team one season. The other two did a little better, with one being first or second string for a couple of seasons. None of them are people I would want to have dinner with. One of them I would rather go hungry than eat a meal with him.
There was a famous baseball player from my kids’ high school. He still holds a few records as far as I recall. The high school baseball team would host a fundraising dinner with him as key note speaker every year. I thought it was lovely of him to come back and help the boys earn money for equipment they wouldn’t otherwise have. he would be the only notable to have graduated from that high school.
My high school has tons of doctors, lawyers, executives, scientists and professionals, but few who are famous. And the famous ones are mostly people I wouldn’t want to dine with.
Among our famous alumni:
Bill Condon, director of “Gods and Monsters”
Columnist Pete Hammill
Mike Walczewski, announcer at Madison Square Garden
Anthony Fauci, AIDS doctor
Lou DiBella, HBO boxing promoter
Character actor John MacGiver
Crossword editor Eugene Maleska
Federal prosecutor Pat Fitzgerald
Yep. My graduating class had 74 people in it. Odds of famous people going to a school that houses 400 kids are not too good.
Yeah, I would be stuck with a bunch of football players and a couple of country & western singers. No thanks.
Surprisingly, my dinner guests would have much to discuss, and maybe even have a little jam session after dinner.
Desiree Bassett
Rivers Cuomo
Peter Tork
Tim Page (music critic, not the Vietnam guy) who is my actual bud in real life.