Dys...WALTER BRENNAN?!? ROTFLMAO!!!
I have an idea, although it may have been put forth earlier in the discussion. To wit, split the 10 between 5 socially-laudable individuals, and 5 who are notorious, but clearly beyond the pale. It would be interesting if there were two or three pairs of such individuals in the same general field. For instance, a top of his game psychopath or outlaw (legally speaking) paired with a similar world-class psychiatrist or law expert. Now, I should think that would make for interesting conversation where most of the 10 would be completely content to just listen.
Sumac: what a great idea!
Cyril Wecht and Ted Bundy
Anne Frank and Adolph Hitler
Martin Luther King, Jr. and David Duke
Dorothea Dix and Phyllis Shlafly
Mickey Schwerner and Byron De La Beckwith
Just nail down the furniture and sit back, way back, and let it rip!
I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it.
I don't wanna be anywhere near that group!
Me, neither.
It's easy enough to find screaming and strife without designing a party around it.
Sumac, Your idea sounds like the basis for a reality tv show with hidden cameras. But dinner?! Well, Sumie, it's your party. You can invite anyone you want to. So where's your guest list.
SweetC, I'm speechless. What a group! Oh, Byron, would you please pass the salt?
Don't much care who is invited, or paired together, as long as the conversation engages the mind.
But Sumac, in order for the conversation to engage the mind, you have to invite mind-engaging people, n'est pas? Didn't mean to demean your idea. I guess we have different ideas of what a dinner party should be. I want pleasant. But it that's not your cup of tea, more power to ya.
Maybe sumac just likes people and would like to be with any engaging conversation
Come sit by me sumac and we can talk with Gandhi for a while
I wouldn't mind watching a video of those testy dinners.
Safe distance, and all.
Part of why I named people was ...because of who they knew, and how they could/can describe their social and geographic environments.. I did name one famous horrible person, Lucrezia, but I subscribe, for the nonce, to Erlanger's revisionist view of her.
But I agree that ten people at a long table will have trouble getting to know each of the others, so my dinner party does, as I think I started to say before, begin in the garden. Perhaps after the apperitivo they can sit for quite a spell at the dining table...but afterwards adjourn to parlour for dessert and the library for their digestivi, a bit of amaro di Montenegro, or for those who avoid alcohol, a nice cup of cocoa or herbal tea.
Well, I've been having a grand time with this thread, imagining who would be seated next to whom at each gathering.
Any suggestions?
Helen Keller next to Gandhi (Bush in the kitchen next to the wash sink - Cav can tell him what to do)
Yup, it's difficult to have a good conversation among ten people. My plan is to have the guests seated at a round table. Then I'd ask the questions I want to ask of each individual. I have to assume that their responses would generate conversation.
Eva, Who would sit next to whom? This is a toughy I have three different guest lists (so far). At two of the parties, I've got Shakespeare on the list. I want him seated to my right. At one party, I've got my grandfather on my list. I want him seated to my left. Beyond that, I don't know.
I'm now working on a fourth list--people who make me laugh. I need to think about it carefully re the menu. Don't want to choke from laughing with food in my mouth. Also don't want various liquids coming out my nose. I'll be back.
Roberta, you just made me remember my gg-grandmother. I want her there - so now I'm at an even dozen (I think). She picked up stakes and moved in 1852 with three sons from Tennessee to Texas and started a whole new life. My gg-grandfather had died about 12 years earlier. Isn't she great
Yeap, want to meet and honor her!
BillW, I'd like to meet and honor your gg-grandmother, too. A strong and brave woman.
Musing--I wonder if the most interesting people are the famous ones. I sometimes get the feeling that meeting regular people who've done exceptional things might at least as interesting as meeting exceptional people.
My grandfather escaped the czar's army (a 20-year hitch) and came to the US. He was a construction worker. I always think of him as one of the men who made Manhattan tall.
I'd like to meet both your great-great grandmother, Bill, and your granfather, Roberta! I'd also like to meet my maternal grandfather who died before Mom ever met my dad. He didn't manage to escape the Czar's army. But he got lucky. He was a musician and was assigned to the band that played aboard the Royal yacht Standart. He eventually rose to be the kapellmeister of that band and traveled all over the world with the Czar. Boy, I'll bet he'd have some stories to tell!
Dagnabbit...y'all can't make me sentimental when a courier with a check is late...now I want my grandfather at the dinner. For anyone with a bit of patience, here are his memoirs as we found them just after he died. Even unedited, it is a good read.
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7047
Cav, I'm bookmarking that. Can't wait to read it!
