If you could invite three people to dinner (living or dead) who would they be and why?

Answer 1

Wow! This is a great question. Too bad none of your respondents took any time to think about what an opportunity this could be. (For example, you can invite your parents, boyfriend/girlfriend, grandparents, etc. any time. This is a once in a lifetime occasion, and all they came up with were family members and a few "celebrities" who would bore me to tears.)

Here are my three:

1) Galileo -- He was a devout Catholic, yet he challenged church teachings. I'd love to ask him how he found the guts to do that. In his time, the Church taught that the earth was the center of the universe; Galileo anticipated Copernicus in discerning that the earth is a planet that revolves around the sun.

He is often referred to as the "father of astronomy," "the father of physics," and the "father of the scientific revolution." He taught the benefits of deductive reasoning, even if the conclusions disagreed with accepted authority.

His inventions are too numerous to elaborate on here. He must have been an extremely wise man because he was thinking "outside the box" hundreds of years before that expression originated.


2) Karen Horney (last name is German and pronounced Hor-nigh) -- She was an early twentieth century medical doctor and psychoanalyst. She got her training from a close friend of Sigmund Freud's. Yet, she disagreed with many Freudian interpretations.

When the Nazi movement started in Germany, she moved to the U.S. and took out citizenship papers immediately. She originally set up a practice in New York, but she was kicked out of the New York Psychoanalytical Society for challenging Freud's ideas. So, she started a psychoanalytic organization of her own.

Instead of Freud's sexually based causes for certain kinds of behavior in children, she substituted "basic anxiety," arguing that human babies have no defenses against harm and must depend upon others (parents) to protect them from a dangerous world.
She even went so far as to suggest that many people didn't need to see a psychoanalyst to solve their problems, and she promoted the idea in one of her books, "Self Analysis."

Like Galileo, it must have taken a lot of intestinal fortitude for Horney to take such an unpopular position, and then stick by her convictions.


3) Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- our only four-term president, Roosevelt led the nation out of the Great Depression. Although he was skeptical of the "new economics" suggested by John Maynard Keynes and, later, by John Kenneth Galbraith, he was willing to give it a try. That changed the United States from the end of WW II to the present day.

A man of great wealth, he seemed to understand the "man in the street," had great empathy with the poor of our society, and pushed for legislation that was revolutionary -- social security, Civilian Conservation Corps, Tennessee Valley Authority, Aid to the Blind, etc.

In person, he was a genial host, a wonderful guest, and a great listener. He could charm even those who hated his politics and his policies. If you think about it, he was the only person who has ever been elected "President for Life."

Now, what if one of the above can't make it to dinner.

Here's my back-up list:

Michaelangelo
Simone de Beauvoir
Jackie (Kennedy) Onasis
Robert Reich
Margaret Mead
Jackie Robinson
F. Scott Fitzgerald

There are many more, but I think this program will cut me off soon.

Answer 2

Paul. Because he was killed Jan. 30, 2005 by a jerk raising hell on a snowmobile and he is my True Love. I would use the time wisely to let him know how much I really do love him, tell him what a great job he did helping my boys get through the ruff spot in life and turning them into respectable young men,enjoy the last few moments with him, let him know that I will never forget and see him when it is my time. He was a wonderful man and the person that I was to be with and would still be if it had not been for the jerk. I just have to live day by day now..do the best I can and smile til the day we see each other again.
My grandmother...to know her..she died when I was my sis was 6 months.
Tammy..my sister in law. I would want her to know Paul, she died before him and was my boys father's sister. Have her tell me like always I have done what she would have. Would like her to voice her opinion to her brother for the wrong he did and still does. Her and I were close.

Answer 3

1. Benjamin Franklin. A fascinating person in every sense of the word. I've read several biographies and would love a chance to hang out with him and a bottle of claret to hear his stories of scientific experiments, the court of France, his second "family" in England, and hear him play on my favorite of his inventions--the glass "armonica", which worked on the same principle as wetting the lip of a wine glass and moving ones' finger around it to make a tone. Never in history has one man had such depth and wealth of interests and experiences.

2. Deborah Kerr. My favorite actress of all time, but more importantly my ideal example of a gentile, feminine, strong minded and intelligent woman. Although she is now 84, I feel that these attributes are timeless and ones I aspire to.

3. Cary Grant. Need you ask why? They just don't make them like that anymore. Sigh.

Answer 4

1. Karl Popper
2. Curt Ducasse
3. Fred Myers

Answer 5

Jesus Christ, Bin laden and Muhammed

I would invite Bin Laden so I can kick the living crap out him then turn him over to Bush! I would invite Muhammed the guy who organized 9/11 with bin laden and flew the first plane into the WTC so I could kick the living crap out of him and poke his eyes out with a fork. and lastly I would invite Jesus so he could forgive me for my sins on the spot and snap his fingers and makes us both a very nice dinner so I wouldn't have to cook.

Answer 6

Jesus Christ - I would ask him for the truth (it would have to be a 15 course feast so he would have enough time to answer my questions.

Tupac Shakur - Someone to drink & smoke with and if it was cool he could drop some of that afterlife rap.

&

Beyonce Knowles - So I could get to know her better and show her what I'm about. Or just as a trophy guest.

Answer 7

Bill Hicks, the greatest comedian of all time. George Washington the Greatest American of all time. Paris Hilton, because your almost assured to get some as a desert.

Answer 8

Niccolo Machiavelli, Baltasar Gracian, and King Louis XIV. They're all dead.

Answer 9

Gilgamesh (does the translator count as a person?) the man upon whom the oldest written story is based.
Akenaten the first monotheist.
Alexander the Great just cause i think he'd be hot.

Answer 10

1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Keith Moon
3. King Rameses II

So we could party like rock stars and live like kings.