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

drom, You're not the first to put Hitler on the list. But I do believe you're the first to invite Borges. I'd like to listen in on that conversation.

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I wasn't the first one to say that I'd invite him out of curiosity? Good! I think that Borges would be an amazing person to invite. (And of course, if there were only ten people allowed, I'd sneak you in so that you could listen. )

It must be amazing to see how different people's choices are when you tutor immigrants. In a way, both of you get an education of different worlds...

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Roberta wrote:

Katya, I'm glad you like this thread. I like it too. You've said why you would invite the folks on your list. But I'm not sure I know who all of them are. For example, who are Shakti Gawain and Thomas Szasz?

Husker, Was "Jesus" an exclamation? Or would you want to invite him to dinner? Also, who is John Muir? Also, why would you want this particular group of people?

If I had Jesus here for dinner - by my best believing - the likes of many things would be changing.

Quote:

.John Muir (1838-1914) was America's most famous and influential naturalist and conservationist. He has been called "The Father of our National Parks," "Wilderness Prophet," and "Citizen of the Universe." He once described himself more humorously, and perhaps most accurately, as, a "poetico-trampo-geologist-botanist and ornithologist-naturalist.

Voltaire (1694-1778), French writer, satirist, the embodiment of the 18th-century Enlightenment, remembered as a crusader against tyranny and bigotry. Among his best-known works is the satirical Candide(1759). Voltaire was educated by the Jesuits at the Collège Louis-le-Grand (1704-11). From 1711 to 1713 he studied law and then worked as a secretary to the French ambassador in Holland before devoting himself entirely to writing. Voltaire energetically attacked the government and the Catholic Church, which earned him numerous imprisonments and exiles.

Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychiatrist (mental health) Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) political philosopher - I studied him for a whole semester in college

Rachel Carson (1907-1964) Biologist, Writer, Ecologist
"The more clearly we can focus our attention on
the wonders and realities of the universe about us,
the less taste we shall have for destruction." -- Rachel Carson © 1954

Cleopatra reigned as Queen and Pharaoh, very powerful

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Thanks for the info, Husker. I should have known who John Muir was. I do now. :-)

drom, I recently started this exercise with my current student. We've spent hours discussing it. I've learned about people I didn't know about. And she's invited me to dinner so that we can finish the discussion (we're up to number 8) and so that her husband can join in. Yes, a number of people mentioned Hitler. Not on my list--any of my lists. I don't care whether he's remorseful or not. I'm not interested in what he has to say. But I can understand why you and others might be.

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It's a really good idea; did you think it up yourself, or is it a method. Either way, it's something that engages everyone... as you can see from the number of responses, no one could say that they wouldn't want to meet ten people of their choice from any time.

I can imagine Lenin and Hitler fighting over the catsup Very Happy

. I'm no fan of him or any fascist- I'm a liberal and a feminist down to the bone- but I think that it would be interesting to have probably the biggest figure of the 20th century, to judge whether he was a lapsed genius or just a plain evil man.

Would you list Hitler as one of the few people whom you'd ban outright from this dinner party?

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drom, I thunk it up myself. Coming up with ideas to teach and draw students out is one of the things I love about tutoring.

No one is banned from the dinners. Your party, your guest list. My party, my guest list. One of the things about a dinner party is that you need to come up with people who will be interesting, not just likable.

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Hi, Roberta - in answer to your question:

Thomas Szasz is a psychiatrist whose book "The Myth of Mental Illness" caused a mild revolution in the mental health field, but his ideas have slowly lost ground to today's fraudulent fad of prescribing and consuming psychotropic drugs.

Shakti Gawain is an amazing woman whose first book "Creative Visualization" in which she postulates that mental energy can be utilized to transform our lives, was one of the foundations of contemporary New Age thought.

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katya, Thanks for filling me in. I have a feeling that both those people would be an asset to any dinner party. The conversation would be fascinating.

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Adam
Enoch
Noah
Isaiah
Christ
Joan
Chengis Khan
Friedrich List
Alexander Pushkin
Katie Sandwina

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Several of you people have mentioned Rachel Carson as a possible guest. You'd have to get Satan's permission; the woman is responsible for something like 90 million deaths and untold misery.

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gunga, Sorry I didn't respond sooner. Didn't know your post was here.

An interesting and biblical guest list. You say who, but you don't say why you would invite these people. I'm curious. Also, I'd like to know who Katie Sandwina is.

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let me see now...

Ernest Hemingway... always wanted to know what made him tick and besides I love his writing, both the style and the themes of his stories..
Ghengis Khan...a bit frightening in some ways but still would like to meet him.
Noah...the guy who is said to have built the ark.
Teddy Roosevelt...from what I have read, I would have liked him.
Isadora Duncan...In her prime, quite full of life.
Gertrude Stein...My mother was named Rose.
Camille Pissarro...I love his art, it always moves me.
Fyodor Dostoevsky...Love his writing.
Nicolas Copernicus...he did a lot for us and well before his time.
Vladimir Lenin...Now there was a man I am curious about.

A lot of other people I'd like to meet (both past and present) as well but you did tell me to limit it to 10.

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gungasnake wrote:

Several of you people have mentioned Rachel Carson as a possible guest. You'd have to get Satan's permission; the woman is responsible for something like 90 million deaths and untold misery.

I admit I didn't know who Rachel Carson was, but upon googling her, could not find anything worse than "she was a food-faddist, health-nut and fish-lover"

What did she do so terrible?

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Chai Tea wrote:

gungasnake wrote:
Several of you people have mentioned Rachel Carson as a possible guest. You'd have to get Satan's permission; the woman is responsible for something like 90 million deaths and untold misery.

I admit I didn't know who Rachel Carson was, but upon googling her, could not find anything worse than "she was a food-faddist, health-nut and fish-lover"

What did she do so terrible?

gungasnake, being who he is, is probably referring to the fact that her best-selling book, Silent Spring was instrumental in getting DDT outlawed as an insecticide. Where he gets his figures and how in the world he figures that banning a deadly pesticide resulted in any human deaths is beyond my meager powers to explain.

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yeah, I was kinda thinking in the same vein, especially about the ddt.

But, look at all the trees who lost their lives in printing the book, and all the orphaned treelings left to fend for themselves.

Eventually they were forced to sell their sap to get by.

Sad really.

I am going to think of my dinner party list tonight, and come back with it later.

Will this involve the good china? I better go buy some.

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Nelson Mandella
Joan of Arc
Cleopatra
Geronimo
The Ice Man http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/icemummies/iceman.html
Kunta Kinte
Genghis kahn
Dalai Lama
Laurie Cabot
Gerald Gardner

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Who is Laurie Cabot? Who is Gerald Gardner?

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Sturgis, Thanks for posting. I love Dostoevsky too. Not sure if I'd want such a meshugina at dinner, though.

Shewolf, Your list is intriguing. You don't say why you would invite those people. Care to expand? And I'm with Andy. Who are Laurie Cabot and Gerald Gardner?

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Sturgis, Thanks for posting. I love Dostoevsky too. Not sure if I'd want such a meshugina at dinner, though.

Shewolf, Your list is intriguing. You don't say why you would invite those people. Care to expand? And I'm with Andy. Who are Laurie Cabot and Gerald Gardner?

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I enjoy seeing this thread revisited...

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

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