A Historical Dinner Party: A Hypothetical

[San Lumen]

Consider the following hypothetical

You are staying in a luxury hotel and while you are there you are informed there is a very special room you can utilize with a reservation. It contains a magical wardrobe that will allow you for one night to have a dinner party with up to seven historical figures of your choosing. The room is extremely fancy and ornate and has a large fireplace that will be active during dinner.

No one is off limits and anything you want as part of the five course meal will be prepared and is completely complimentary.

Do you utilize this room? who do you chose and what would you eat?

I would probably choose John Adams, Abagail Adams, Albert Einstein, MLK , H.G Wells, Frederick Douglass, Rene Descartes. As to what we would eat I have four or five course dinner probably consisting of French Cuisine

[Loeje]

I would choose Jesus, who definitely should be allowed for this hypothetical.

[Sundiata]

I would choose Jesus, who definitely should be allowed for this hypothetical.

Same, six more to go.

[Loeje]

I would choose Jesus, who definitely should be allowed for this hypothetical.

Same, six more to go.

Favorite apostles!

I assumed that up to seven meant that I could choose just the one. More than that would be hard.

[Mathuvan Union]

James Cook.

[The Alma Mater]

I would choose Jesus, who definitely should be allowed for this hypothetical.

But that would mean his last supper was not his last.

For the hypothetical: what language will the guests speak ?

[Loeje]

I would choose Jesus, who definitely should be allowed for this hypothetical.

But that would mean his last supper was not his last.

For the hypothetical: what language will the guests speak ?

But it would be interesting, at the very least.

[A-Series-Of-Tubes]

1. Jules Verne likely only spoke French. Galileo Galilei might have been able to read English, but not speak it intelligibly. He was Italian, of course.

2. Jesus Christ did not speak English. In case you're thinking of a translator, good luck finding an Aramaic speaker who isn't also a Christian. Having lived and died so long before the other guests, Jesus would be so massively famous to them that he'd kill conversation. Big no from me, also isn't it as heretical as fuck to use modern technology to bring about the Second Coming just for your entertainment?

3. All the fellas from before the 20th century might be prone to groping any females you have on the premises. I suggest all-male caterers, and any females insisting on being present should dress ungropably ... as Fine Ladies. To be honest having females present seems like a mistake, I'd even leave out Mrs. Adams.

[San Lumen]

Same, six more to go.

Favorite apostles!

I assumed that up to seven meant that I could choose just the one. More than that would be hard.

You could chose one but I’d want a full table. What would you have for dinner? People are forgetting that part.

I would choose Jesus, who definitely should be allowed for this hypothetical.

But that would mean his last supper was not his last.

For the hypothetical: what language will the guests speak ?

I suppose whatever language is your native one or perhaps part of the magic of the room is it translates for you and your quests.

[A-Series-Of-Tubes]

I would choose Jesus, who definitely should be allowed for this hypothetical.

But that would mean his last supper was not his last.

For the hypothetical: what language will the guests speak ?

Google Translate. They'll love it.

Which brings up the question: shouldn't the furnishings, equipment, staff etc all be archaic? From around the time of the earliest participant in the dinner party. It would be a shame if discussion of Verne's unpublished sex-robot, or scuttlebutt on the Founding Fathers ... were set aside so the host could explain one more time about Ikea and how flat-pack isn't really building it yourself.

[San Lumen]

But that would mean his last supper was not his last.

For the hypothetical: what language will the guests speak ?

Google Translate. They'll love it.

Which brings up the question: shouldn't the furnishings, equipment, staff etc all be archaic? From around the time of the earliest participant in the dinner party. It would be a shame if discussion of Verne's unpublished sex-robot, or scuttlebutt on the Founding Fathers ... were set aside so the host could explain one more time about Ikea and how flat-pack isn't really building it yourself.

Why must you make this so complicated?

[Kannap]

• Audre Lorde
• W.E.B. DuBois
• Henry David Thoreau
• John Brown
• Kurt Vonnegut
• John Steinbeck
• Harvey Milk

[San Lumen]

[list=][*]Audre Lorde
[*]W.E.B. DuBois
[*]Henry David Thoreau
[*]John Brown
[*]Kurt Vonnegut
[*]John Steinbeck
[*]Harvey Milk[/list]

Excellent choices. I’d love to have Harvey Milk at my dinner party.

[A-Series-Of-Tubes]

Google Translate. They'll love it.

Which brings up the question: shouldn't the furnishings, equipment, staff etc all be archaic? From around the time of the earliest participant in the dinner party. It would be a shame if discussion of Verne's unpublished sex-robot, or scuttlebutt on the Founding Fathers ... were set aside so the host could explain one more time about Ikea and how flat-pack isn't really building it yourself.

Why must you make this so complicated?

Oh, that's not complicated. Complicated is what you're going to do when Einstein calls for pen and paper and starts explaining Relativity to Galileo.

[San Lumen]

Why must you make this so complicated?

Oh, that's not complicated. Complicated is what you're going to do when Einstein calls for pen and paper and starts explaining Relativity to Galileo.

I guess so. Instead of Galileo I think I want Descartes to come.

[Bombadil]

Neal Cassady - the guy was in On the Road and Electric Kool Aid Acid Test.. the stories he has to tell
Buzz Aldrin - apparently he was a bit more vivacious than Armstrong - but to know what it was like to step on the moon
Margaret Beaufort - I'm always astonished at her story and would like to know more
David Bowie - what happens on tour, stays on tour.. except at my dinner party
Vivian Leigh - the glory (and tragic) days of Hollywood
Dorothy Parker - for witty conversation
My dad

Basically I want storytellers from periods, or scenes, I'd love to know more about from a personal history aspect.

[Cetacea]

Chinggis Khan - he's rise from homeless orphan to Uniter of half the World must make for some great yarns

Moses - from Prince of Egypt to wandering desert prophet for the sake of Monotheism, just what was he smoking?

Leonardo Da Vinci - he can tell us about some of he's weirder inventions

Elizabeth Bathory -to explain her beauty regimen

Bilqis the Queen of Sheba - to tell us just what she saw in Solomon

Upp - the first Hominid to stand upright and challenge the Fire (okay mainly for entertainment)

[Kowani]

• Eugene V. Debs
• Jose Ortega y Gasset
• Manuel Azaña
• Nat Turner
• Hyman Minsky
• Bernard Russell
• Toussaint Louverture

[Risottia]

Consider the following...

Ooh I'd go with Robespierre, Lenin, Schopenhauer, Hilbert, Comte, Gramsci, Russell and we'd have a lovely time talking modernism and piling shit on Hegel.
Marx intentionally left out because of his bad taste in tobacco. Seriously, Karl, I told you that while a cigar is just a cigar sometimes, it always ruins the taste of wine!

[Aequalitatis ac Libertatis]

1: Thomas Jefferson. Generally my favorite
2: John F. Kennedy. I could finally learn the complete truth of his murder
3: Winston Churchill, I don't even know why I like him or why i'm putting him here, I just do
4: Malcolm X, see above
5: Otto Von Bismarck, in general a great leader and absolute badass
6: Teddy Roosevelt, see above
7: Huey Long, reason mentioned in a moment

Additionally all of them would have some sort of connection to another, for an example JFK greatly admired Jefferson, and all the connections could spark some interesting discussion (or in a few cases, a fistfight)

Food: Antipasto salad, seafood alfredo, steak, cheesecake, and chips & salsa. Not in that order.

Topic: The previously mentioned "interesting discussion", which would include, among other things, philosophy (Jefferson JFK and Churchill were all knowledgeable on classical Greek and Roman philosophy) and of course long discussions on their actions/thoughts when they lived

[The New California Republic]

• Aristotle.
• Simone de Beauvoir.
• Albert Einstein.
• Sigmund Freud.
• Martin Heidegger.
• Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels (I'm classing these as one person since they usually come as a pair. Deal with it).
• Friedrich Nietzsche.

[Washington Resistance Army]

Boy this is a hard one. In no particular order I'd currently say:

Julian the Apostate
Sallustius
Plethon
Damascius
Julius Laetus
Thomas Taylor

I like to think that group of people could have some fascinating religious discussions.

[The Two Jerseys]

Hitler
Stalin
Mussolini
Lenin
Francisco Franco
Mao Zedong
Karl Marx

Marx is just there to watch as we redistribute his meal among the other guests, the rest I'm inviting so that I can make them fight to the death with switchblades. The winner gets Marx's dessert.

[Major-Tom]

Probably Marilyn Monroe, see if I can't give it my best effort in flirting. If that fails, then fine, I'll shoot my shot with JFK.

[Insaanistan]

Either Jesus (pbuh), Moses (pbuh), Muhammad (pbuh), Salahuddin, Mehmed-i-Fetih, Bayajidda, Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X, Bob Marley and Kwame Nkrumah.

Or...

Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao Zedong, Timur-i-Leng, Ayatollah Khomenei, Genghis Khan and Shah Ismail I...so I can pull out a gun and shoot them all.

I’d give the first group West African and Middle Eastern food, and the second group McDonald’s because why not?