Dinner Party Guest List--Any Ten People Who Ever Lived

Looks like our respective ancestors would make one hell of a guest list. Andy, the grandfather who made his escape was from Lithuania. My paternal grandpa was from Riga. Your grandpa sounds like a most fortunate person, and I bet he would have some fabulous stories to tell.

Cav, I'm checking out the link.

Cav, I've started reading. I love this. How lucky you are to have such a treasure. Only one of my grandparents was literate in English. I would have loved for any of them to write about their lives.

List three--

Jesus
Pilate
Paul (formerly Saul)
The current Pope
King James (The Bible translator)
The Dalai Lama
Satan
Mohammad
Brigham Young
Buddha

Wow, Sofia! That's some list. Only thing is, King James i himself had nothing to do with the translation of the Bible. Doubt if he knew much of any other language than English. It's known as the King James version because he commissioned a committee of scholars to make a translation specifically for the Church of England. To this day, we don't know who all the scholars on that team were. Some suspect that Shakespeare and Ben Jonson might have been among them. No real evidence of this, but some of the poetry is so subtly beautiful, we feel that some first-rate scholar-poets must have been involved.

I can't help but wonder what the heck that dinner would be like.
I see Satan as Donald Pleasance--Satan in The Greatest Story Ever Told. But, in light of his company, I wonder if he would be sort of quiet, casting murmurings to those around him, or be like the Satan in Job--crowing about his success...

I almost invited Robertson, Falwell and Swaggart--but I would be hoping to see their comeuppance--and having such mean-spirited plans--I'd probably get mine, instead.

Hello, everyone, hope I'm not both too new and too late to set up my own little party for 10...and, yes, I'm just anal enough to have done so alphabetized as well ( ):

1. Leonard Bernstein
2. Caesar Chavez
3. Mahatma Ghandi
4. Jesus
5. Martin Luther King, Jr.
6. John Louis
7. Golda Meir
8. Harvey Milk
9. Moses
10.Phil Ochs

There is only one woman in there. Defend your list! or

Farewell Angelina.

Wow, you are strict! (love the song, though)

I defend the list as follows:

Each person invited has at least one thing in common with all the others: they have or had social consciences and used them to accomplish so much. They overcame the odds to triumph against tremendous odds in their respective struggles and I want to talk to each of them about translating their beliefs into such courage of action. I also want to watch them interact as I imagine it would be a beautiful thing!

I'm certain I can come up with a list of 10 women as well as another list of 100 people, men and women alike; these are simply the first 10 who came to mind - perhaps that shows an unconscious bias which I don't normally examine... But, please do not banish me so early here at A2K!

Angelina,

We could invite Elizabeth Cady Stanton who wrote to a male black activist (who felt his cause for equity was more compelling than hers for women's suffrage):...If you would have once, even in your most downtrodden and demeaning moments, have traded places with me, a white woman, I'll accept that your cause is greater than mine.

You are welcome here. I was just hanging the bells of the crown.

Hey Raboida, still thinking and wishing I could attend all these dinners. Be back when I have more time.

Thank you, Kara, I appreciate that; and will repeat one of my paragraphs as well:

"I'm certain I can come up with a list of 10 women as well as another list of 100 people, men and women alike; these are simply the first 10 who came to mind - perhaps that shows an unconscious bias which I don't normally examine..."

Holy moley, Sofia. Well, you won't have to worry about running out of wine.

Angelina, Welcome. I'm glad you found your way here. And it's never too late to post on this thread. The more the merrier. I didn't have any women on my first list. Fact is that the people I most wanted to meet and talk to from the past were men. So be it. The rules of the game are to invite any ten people. I liked your choices and the reasons you made them.

Thank you, Roberta; since this is our 2nd thread together (so far), I want to let you know that your opinion means a great deal to me ...

Aw shucks.

I've been thinking about making up a guest list of people who make me laugh. I've been worrying about laughing while eating (choking) and drinking (liquids coming out my nose), so I've decided to abstain during the party. The guests may eat and drink, but I'll be listening, laughing, and participating.

Groucho Marx--He and I can do the contract scene from Night at the Opera. I'll be Chico.

Woody Allen--From his old stand-up days, I want to hear the moose at the costume party routine and the electrical appliances plotting against him routine.

Lucy Ricardo (not Lucille Ball)--I'll be Ethel Mertz and Lucy and I will be working at the chocolate factory.

Flip Wilson--Chris gonna find Ray Charles.

George Carlin--His stuff routine.

Oscar Wilde--No routine will be necessary. His wit will suffice.

Dorothy Parker--Ditto.

Mark Twain--Also ditto.

Charlie Chaplin--He'll have an unlimited supply of dinner rolls. And roller skates.

Mae West--Beulah, peel me a grape. And I forget in which movie she said, "I'm gonna throw me an opera." And she did. She sang operatically, too--more or less. Well, less.

PS: I'm gonna wear one of those Depends thingies so that I don't have to worry about wetting my pants.

Roberta, I like your laugh list.

Has everyone heard this one?

Bob Dole was asked if he wears boxers or briefs.

He replied, "Depends."

Ba Da Bam!




(That's bad, but good, Kara!)

Kara, I hadn't heard. Maybe I was the only one. Now EVERYONE has heard it. LOL.

Loved the laugh list, particularly the inclusion of Dorothy Parker (for her acidic observations).

But come back to my idea of having a mixed bag. How much really good conversation can come from preaching to the choir?

Let's pair one of the Hussein boys with Jesus.