Dinner with anyone past or present....

[BeemerBoy]

Okay, here's an interesting question that was posed to me this past week by a good friend. If you could chose one person, past or present, to enjoy an engaging dinner with, who would it be? The possibilities are endless with this one. World leaders, sports heroes, rock stars, supermodels (keep it clean, guys), or anyone you've always had a great admiration for....it's your pick.

 

Feel free to tell us why you chose this person, if you so chose. I know it's tough to narrow it down to one, so I'll go ahead and put my top 5, just in case one got stuck in traffic and couldn't make it.

 

Personally, my choice has always been a no-brainer: Walter Elias Disney.

I could easily spend a whole week talking with the most brilliant man the amusement business has ever known, but even just a few hours would be amazing.

 

2. Jimmy Buffett

3. Bob Marley

4. Pope John Paul II

5. Bobby Orr (The greatest hockey player ever )

 

Anyway, have fun with this one. The floor is open.......

[USRoadTripper]

You totally stole my answer. Make that a table for three.

 

-Julie

[BeemerBoy]

^ Since you answered first, maybe we could arrange something.

[Kroger8]

Let's see, the first person who comes to mind I would like to have dinner with (before Alzheimer's) would be Ronald Reagan, In my opinion, even though I never lived during the time he was president, he was the best. Also Will Ferrell would be awesome to have dinner with!

[Hercules]

I love this question and the answer changes every time for me.

 

1. My girlfriend - It just isn't a good time without her. I could choose someone else that I don't know to try to pick their brain and ask them all kinds of questions, but it just wouldn't be the same without her there.

 

2. Michael Jordan - Not only is he the best basketball player ever, but he truly is a great role model eventhough he gambles a lot. I think he is a very intelligent and business savvy guy who knows how to carry himself with the media. I would love to just sit and have a long conversation with him.

 

3. Andy Kaufman - I think that this man is the funniest person ever to live, and I think he was a total genius. Some might call him crazy, but just think he was exactly what I just said - genius.

 

4. Tom Hanks - Every movie that I see of his I don't say "Oh, it's Tom Hanks", I say "Oh, it's Forrest Gump" or whatever the character is. If someone can make me think that, they must be good. I truly think he is the best actor that I have seen.

 

5. Notorious B.I.G. - What can I say, I like rap.

 

I could put in a top 5 for sports, or movies, or politics, or music, but I just wanted to put in different people of different facets of life.

[Scaparri]

My Top 5 will probably all be racing related:

 

TIE

1. Mario Andretti ; The Greatest Racer in History- The man has done it all. He's won the Indy 500, the F1 World Championship, the Daytona 500, and that list goes on forever. He has entered in numerous forms of racing and has won a championship or major event in nearly every one of them. He is to racing what Michael Jordan is to basketball.

 

1. Tony George ; The owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I'd love to sit down and talk about how much he screwed up open wheel racing, talk about the good he has done, and talk about what needs to happen in the future.

 

3. Emerson Fittipaldi ; the 1979 F1 World Champ and '89 & '93 Indy 500 winner- He was always one of my heroes growing up. I'd really like to sit down and talk about the good ole days.

 

4. Kenny Brack ; 1998 Indy 500 winner. He's just an all 'round great guy. He accomplished what would be my ultimate dream and then nearly died in a horrific accident. He just is a person I'd really like to have a conversation with.

 

5. Vitor Meira ; Runner-up in the '05 Indy 500 and my favorite racer- The only reason why he doesn't rank higher is because I've had conversations with him before. He's just a class act with a ton of talent in the profession that I've always dreamed about.

[BeemerBoy]

 

1. My girlfriend - It just isn't a good time without her. I could choose someone else that I don't know to try to pick their brain and ask them all kinds of questions, but it just wouldn't be the same without her there.

 

 

Thanks Herc. You tryin' to make us all look bad? I guess I'll have to edit mine to say "The top 5 famous people" so I won't be sleeping on the couch. j/k

[Louise]

I can't believe somebody else said Andy Kaufman! As soon as I saw the title of the thread that's the first person to pop into my mind.

 

1. Andy Kaufman

2. JFK

(and in no particular order)

3. Humphrey Bogart

4. George Dubya Bush

5. Carrie Bradshaw (I can say a fictional character right??!! )

[Chrissie]

Ooooh good question!

 

Mines would be

 

1) Robbie Williams - Hes my idol, Nothin much I can say there

2) Frank Sinatra - Just saw the Frank Sinatra show in London and it was fantastic, there are sooo many questions I would like to ask him about his life

3)My Grandad - I never met him, so it would be nice too lol

4)Judy Garland - She lived a facinating life, would love to get all the insights.

5) Elvis Pressley - Another person with a facinating life.

[Penguin]

I also agree that this is a good question. Here's my list:

 

1. Elvis Presley

2. Rod Serling

3. Walt Disney

4. Michael Hutchence

5. James Dean

[niiicolaaah]

Frank Zappa

[Luxo]

^ Amen, but also...

 

Joe Strummer

Johnny Cash

Marc Davis

Walt Disney

Banksy

[CoasterFanatic]

I wouldn't want to eat with someone who was pompous or snobbish, so that eliminates most actors, politicians and athletes.

 

Here is my list:

Living:

Henry Rollins

Kevin Smith

John and John (TMBG)

Deborah Gibson

 

Dead:

Fred Rogers

Walt Disney

Grandfather (Mothers Side. Died when I was 2)

 

// Has eaten dinner with Mike Patton 2X

[GaThrasher]

Good topic! I agree that mine constantly changes but for now:

 

1. Trent Reznor - a musical genious.

2. David Copperfield - but only if he promised to reveal some secrets (I'll sign the secrecy document!)

3. Charlize Theron - Nothing insightful here...just want to stare at her lol

4. Leonardo Da Vinci - Just to hear what other ideas he could come up with.

 

Can't make up my mind on the fifth, so 4 is all you get

[Wes]

1. Gary Sinise

2. Ron Howard

3. Bill Paxton

4. Stephen Colbert

5. Huey Lewis

 

I win.

[BeemerBoy]

^ What about Tad Hamilton?

[Meteornotes]

Wes, if that list had included Dio, you would have indeed won. But you left him off. No prize for you.

 

My List:

 

Frank Zappa

Elvis

Clive Barker

Howard Stern

Mike Portnoy

 

dt

[Nrthwnd]

A nice big table dinner with:

 

Stephen Sondheim - composer/lyricist of Sweeney Todd, Follies, Company.

John Kander & (the late) Fred Ebb - creators of Cabaret, Chicago, Zorba.

Rogers & Hammerstein - go Google them, lol.

 

That should keep the table banter pretty lively and colorful, heh heh.

[NoahTheBoa]

Here's my list...

 

Dean Kamen- Founder of the F.I.R.S.T. Robotics Competition and the inventor of the Segway and IBOT.

 

Andy Kaufman

 

Dave Lavery- NASA engineer who worked on th Mars Exploration rovers.

 

Benjamin Franklin

[Blazen_AZN]

Let's see, the first person who comes to mind I would like to have dinner with (before Alzheimer's) would be Ronald Reagan, In my opinion, even though I never lived during the time he was president, he was the best.

 

You stole my answer, damnit!

 

I agree, he was a great president though.

[BeemerBoy]

Wow, a lot of love for Frank Zappa in here. Nobody's really elaborated on why he's your pick though. I'm just curious, that's all. Are you all just hoping he'll rename you something funky? j/k

[erinys]

Jesus Christ. Note 'Christ,' not 'of Nazareth.'

Because he seems to be a compilation of myths from a number of different religions and cultures all rolled up together, and I would need actual physical proof to believe there really was such a person/creature. If there did end up being someone else at the table with me, I'd like his opinion of many of the things that have been done in his name.

[BeemerBoy]

^ I'll pray for you.

[erinys]

That's cool - never hurts to hedge one's bets.

 

But I'll add Johnny Depp as a backup just for the drool factor.

[shepp]

^ I'll pray for you.

 

To (more or less) quote Peter O'Toole in The Ruling Class, "I know that I'm God, because every time I pray, I find I'm talking to myself."

 

Interesting that Disney's such a favorite. Can't personally vouch for the book's veracity, but "Disney: The Dark Prince" paints a well-documented portrait of a WED who was an anti-Semitic Nazi sympathizer, a stool pigeon for J. Edgar Hoover, a union-busting egomaniac who took credit for others' work, a rotten family man, and a messed-up depressive. Not my idea of the ideal dinner companion.

 

My idea of an interesting conversational group:

 

1. Oscar Wilde

2. Walt Whitman

3. Thomas Jefferson

4. Sir Ian McKellan

5. Tallulah Bankhead

 

It would be interesting to have Reagan stop by, though, so I could ask him if he was having any second thoughts about creating the Taliban...

 

Oh, and erinys, I commend to you the work of The Jesus Seminar, a group of Biblical scholars who, in two great books, separated out what was most likely said and done by the historical Jesus, what might have been, and what was most certainly made up by the folks who wrote and edited the Scriptures. Fascinating...