Perfect Dinner Guests ...
The Perfect Dinner Guests Game
Note: This post was originally published on March 10, 2005; certain entries, like this one are backdated to reduce clutter of the main blog.
In college, it was typical for my dorm floor to stay up till the wee hours to talk about everything from the meaning of life to what the hell we were doing here .. typical collegiate culture. These late night rights-of-passage talks sometime ended abruptly with everyone storming back to their rooms and slamming doors, regardless if there was a midterm the next day or not.One subject we visited often was a hypothetical dinner party each of us would host, and who each of us would invite to dinner. The structure was very simple: there are enough place-settings for ten guests, they can be dead or alive, real or fictitious, famous or not .. pretty simple, huh? I can't say I remember my original guests list, but below is my current list; who would be invite to your dinner?
Brief biographies taken from biography.com
- Sylvia Plath (1932-63): Poet and novelist, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Driven by a desire to write, she won a Fulbright Fellowship to Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1956, where she studied English, and met and married the poet Ted Hughes. After some time spent teaching in the USA, they settled in England, first in London, then in Devon, but separated in 1962. Often termed a confessional poet, her earlier, highly controlled work gave way to a poetry of visionary expression and personal intensity, which has since come to be highly regarded. Her collections include A Winter Ship (1960), which was published anonymously, The Colossus (1960) and, posthumously, Ariel (1965), and Winter Trees (1972). Her collected poems were edited by Ted Hughes in 1981. Her only novel, The Bell Jar (1963), which describes a student's mental breakdown, was published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas just before her own suicide.
- Homer(c.8th - cBC): Greek poet, to whom are attributed the great epics, the Iliad, the story of the siege of Troy, and the Odyssey, the tale of Ulysses's wanderings. The place of his birth is doubtful, probably a Greek colony on the coast of Asia Minor, and his date, once put as far back as 1200 BC, from the style of the poems attributed to him, is now thought to be much later. Arguments have long raged over whether his works are in fact by the same hand, or have their origins in the lays of Homer and his followers (Homeridae), and there seems little doubt that the works were originally based on current ballads which were much modified and extended. Like much orally transmitted poetry, they are characterized by much use of repeated phrases, lines, epithets, and even paragraphs. Of the true Homer, nothing is positively known. The so-called Homeric hymns are certainly of a later age.
- Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (1832-98): Writer, mathematician, and photographer, born in Daresbury, Cheshire, NWC England, UK. He studied at Oxford, took orders in 1861, and became a lecturer in mathematics (185581). His nursery tale, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass (1872), both describe a child's dream adventures, and quickly became classics. Alice, to whom the surreal and satirical story was originally related during boating excursions, was the second daughter (who died in 1934) of Henry George Liddell, the head of his Oxford college. He wrote a great deal of humorous and nonsense verse, such as The Hunting of the Snark (1876), as well as several mathematical works. He was also a respected portrait photographer. He lived much of his life in the N of England. The Walrus and the Carpenter was written on Whitburn Sands, Sunderland, and most of Jabberwocky was also composed in Whitburn, where there is a statue in his memory.
- Leonardo de Vinci (1452-1519): Painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer, born in Vinci, NC Italy. About 1470 he entered the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio, and in 1482 settled in Milan, where he painted his Last Supper (1498) on the refectory wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie. In 1500 he entered the service of Cesare Borgia in Florence as architect and engineer, and with Michelangelo decorated the Sala del Consiglio in the Palazzo della Signoria with historical compositions. About 1504 he completed his most celebrated easel picture, Mona Lisa (Louvre). In 1506 he was employed by Louis XII of France, and in 1516 was given a pension by Francis I. Very few of his paintings have survived. His notebooks contain original remarks on most of the sciences, including biology, physiology, hydrodynamics, and aeronautics.
- Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi (1207-73): Persian lyric poet and mystic, born in Balkh, modern Afghanistan. He settled at Iconium (Konya) in 1226 and founded a sect who, after his death, were known in the West as the Whirling Dervishes. He wrote a great deal of lyrical poetry, including a long epic on Sufi mystical doctrine.
- Martin Luther King, Jr (1929-68): Baptist minister and civil rights leader, born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The grandson and son of Baptist ministers, in 1935 his father changed both their names to Martin to honour the German Protestant. Young Martin graduated from Morehouse College in Georgia (1948) and Crozer Theological Seminary (1951) and then took a PhD from Boston University (1955), where he also met his future (1957) wife, Coretta Scott, with whom he had four children. Ordained a minister (1947) at his father's Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, he became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL (1953).
- Sappho (c.610-c.580): Greek poet, born in Lesbos, Greece. The most celebrated female poet of antiquity, she wrote lyrics unsurpassed for depth of feeling, passion, and grace. Only two of her odes are extant in full, but many fragments have been found in Egypt. She is said to have plunged into the sea from the Leucadian rock because Phaon did not return her love, but this event seems to have no historical foundation. Tradition also represents her poetry as a celebration of lesbian love, but this too has been disputed. She wrote in a great many metres, one of which, the Sapphic, is named after her. She influenced many later writers, among them Catullus, Ovid, and Swinburne.
- Anne Frank (1929-45): Jewish diarist and concentration camp victim, born in Frankfurt, WC Germany. Her family fled from the Nazis to The Netherlands in 1933, and after the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands she hid with her family and four others in a sealed-off office flat in Amsterdam from 1942 until they were betrayed in 1944. She died in Belsen concentration camp. The lively, moving diary she kept during her concealment was published under the title Het achterhuis by her father, the only Frank survivor, in 1947, dramatized, translated into fifty languages, and filmed, and she has become a symbol of past suffering under the Nazis. The flat where the family hid, at 263 Prinsengracht, is now the Anne Frank-museum.
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955): Mathematical physicist, born in Ulm, S Germany. He was educated at Munich and Aarau, and went on to study at the Zürich Polytechnic. Taking Swiss nationality in 1901, he was appointed examiner at the Swiss Patent Office (19029), where he began to publish original papers on theoretical physics. He was made world famous by his special (1905) and general (1916) theories of relativity. He was professor at the universities of Zürich (1909), and Prague (1911), at Zürich Polytechnic (1912), then became director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute in Berlin (191433). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. After Hitler's rise to power, he left Germany, lectured at Oxford and Cambridge, and worked from 1934 at the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, USA. In 1940 he became a US citizen. He spent the later part of his life attempting by means of his unified field theory (1950) to establish a merger between quantum theory and his general theory of relativity. After the war, he urged international control of atomic weapons.
- Alexander the Great (356-323 BC): King of Macedonia (336323 BC), born at Pella, the son of Philip II and Olympias. He was tutored by Aristotle, and ascended the throne when less than 20 years old. After crushing all opposition at home, he set out to conquer Greece's hereditary enemy, Achaemenid Persia. This he achieved with great rapidity in a series of famous battles: Granicus (334 BC), Issus (333 BC), and Gaugmela (331 BC). By 330 BC, Darius III had fled, and the capitals of Susa, Persepolis, and Ecbatana had been taken. In the next three years, the E half of the empire was also conquered, and Alexander set out for India. He reached the Punjab, and had set his sights on the Ganges, when his troops mutinied and forced his return. He died shortly after at Babylon.
last update: march 21, 2005
another point of view ...
Dear Mr. Nam LaMore,
Your blogspot is quite interesting and I certainly look forward to reading your opinions.
I also miss those university days staying up to discuss everything and anything of importance. I actually was able to relive those times last year in a psychiatric clinic where most in-patients were diagnosed as schizos, etc. It was magnificent- tricked the nurses to allow us to stay up and listen to music and philosophize. No wonder I never wanted to leave.
And now life goes on and I'm writing to retain what sanity I still have.
Thanks for reading.
Thank you for having a look at my blog.
I'm not sure if discussions in college were of importance, as the luxury of time and naiveness afforted me [us] the chance to get on the soapbox, plan everyone's future with alternate universes, and ignore consequences. Sounds like you had a fantastic time at the clinic .. what a wonderful place to find your inner voices.
Visit again soon! And don't be shy, next time leave an uncloaked mark.
- nl
My dinner guests would be:
1. President George W. Bush
2. Kirstie Alley
3. Julia Roberts
4. Madonna
5. Michael Jackson
6. Rock Hudson
7. Hillary Clinton
8. Boy George
9. Jerry Springer
10. Dave Hiller (me)
Can we say ... FOOD FIGHT!
I'm not sure, but I think I played a similar game in college, but it was, "What Killer to Bring Home for Thanksgiving Dinner" - that was a fun game until we decided it was a bit too creepy.
My [updated] list would include:
Richard Ramirez
Scott Peterson
John Wayne Gacy
Jack the Ripper
Fritz Haarmann
John Christie
Edward Gein
David Berkowitz
Jeffrey Dahmer
Theodore Bundy
...WF
I've always wanted to invite Disney's girls over:
* Arial, "The Little Mermade"
* Cinderella
* Mulan
* Pocahontas
* Jasmin, "Aladdin"
* Belle, "Beauty & the Beast"
* Tinkerbell
* Alice, "Alice in Wonderland"
* Snow White
* Aurora, "Sleeping Beauty"
* Jane, "Tarzan"
- Mindy Smith
What a simple game; I probably played similiar games in my college years too. But, haven't done so in a long time. I'm glad I ran across your post (just surfing around), and I think I'll introduce this to my friends. We like to get together, and have nothing to talk about most of the time!
- Lee Villars, Jr
Hi,
Your post gave me an idea: I'm going to teach my kids about famous figures in history and arts using your game. I think they'll like it. Thanks for post.
- Germaine Brecks
I want Elvis at my dinner party. We need to find out where he's been hiding out.
Also, I want to invite Amilia Earhart there, for the same reason.
- Stacey
hey nam,
I probably want half of your guest list! I love history you know and I often look back to the early civilazation periods.
why the fascination with poets? hehe
speak up!
Dear Mr. Nam LaMore,
Your blogspot is quite interesting and I certainly look forward to reading your opinions.
I also miss those university days staying up to discuss everything and anything of importance. I actually was able to relive those times last year in a psychiatric clinic where most in-patients were diagnosed as schizos, etc. It was magnificent- tricked the nurses to allow us to stay up and listen to music and philosophize. No wonder I never wanted to leave.
And now life goes on and I'm writing to retain what sanity I still have.
Thanks for reading.
Nam LaMore
Thank you for having a look at my blog.
I'm not sure if discussions in college were of importance, as the luxury of time and naiveness afforted me [us] the chance to get on the soapbox, plan everyone's future with alternate universes, and ignore consequences. Sounds like you had a fantastic time at the clinic .. what a wonderful place to find your inner voices.
Visit again soon! And don't be shy, next time leave an uncloaked mark.
- nl
My dinner guests would be:
1. President George W. Bush
2. Kirstie Alley
3. Julia Roberts
4. Madonna
5. Michael Jackson
6. Rock Hudson
7. Hillary Clinton
8. Boy George
9. Jerry Springer
10. Dave Hiller (me)
Can we say ... FOOD FIGHT!
I'm not sure, but I think I played a similar game in college, but it was, "What Killer to Bring Home for Thanksgiving Dinner" - that was a fun game until we decided it was a bit too creepy.
My [updated] list would include:
Richard Ramirez
Scott Peterson
John Wayne Gacy
Jack the Ripper
Fritz Haarmann
John Christie
Edward Gein
David Berkowitz
Jeffrey Dahmer
Theodore Bundy
...WF
I've always wanted to invite Disney's girls over:
* Arial, "The Little Mermade"
* Cinderella
* Mulan
* Pocahontas
* Jasmin, "Aladdin"
* Belle, "Beauty & the Beast"
* Tinkerbell
* Alice, "Alice in Wonderland"
* Snow White
* Aurora, "Sleeping Beauty"
* Jane, "Tarzan"
- Mindy Smith
What a simple game; I probably played similiar games in my college years too. But, haven't done so in a long time. I'm glad I ran across your post (just surfing around), and I think I'll introduce this to my friends. We like to get together, and have nothing to talk about most of the time!
- Lee Villars, Jr
Hi,
Your post gave me an idea: I'm going to teach my kids about famous figures in history and arts using your game. I think they'll like it. Thanks for post.
- Germaine Brecks
I want Elvis at my dinner party. We need to find out where he's been hiding out.
Also, I want to invite Amilia Earhart there, for the same reason.
- Stacey
Jo Travels
hey nam,
I probably want half of your guest list! I love history you know and I often look back to the early civilazation periods.
why the fascination with poets? hehe
speak up!
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