If you could have a drink with any famous person, who?

[Zelig]

I'd do tequila shots with Mohammed

Wine coolers with the Virgin Mary.

 

[Whiskey_Lord]

If I can only pick one: Jesus of Nazareth. For the sake of closure, at least.

 

[Godwynn]

Albert Pujols

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I'm surprised how many posts this got.

I think you all know my first choice (and cola for me, please).

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Jesus would be pretty cool. He wouldn't be a pretentious prick, like most famous people are likely to be. Also, I have questions. Lots of questions. And finally we know that he's a drinker.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Meeting of Minds

Steve Allen, already the originator of the Tonight show, later created what one critic called "the ultimate talk show" and presented, on the PBS network, a series called Meeting of Minds which was constructed in a typical chat-show format, but featured guests who played important roles in the drama of history. Among those who appeared were Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, Marie Antoinette, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Paine, Francis Bacon, Thomas Jefferson, Voltaire and Charles Darwin. The multi-award winning series still exists in the form of video cassettes, audio cassettes and a four volume set of books, published by Prometheus. Most of the women's roles were played by Allen's wife, Jayne Meadows.

Allen clarified at the time, "The idea is that every syllable will be part of an actual quotation. The degree of the exact quotation varies from character to character. In the case of some people who played important roles in the drama of history, of course, there is no record of anything they ever said or wrote.
"Two examples that come to mind are Cleopatra and Attila the Hun. Nevertheless, they were both fascinating characters for our show. And there's nothing difficult in creating dialog for them. You bring factual information into conversational form -- and commit no offense in doing so.
"The more scholars know about the people we're dealing with, the more impressed they are with how accurate our renderings are. It's remarkable how little negative criticism we've received."

Very tough. Hafiz, Elizabeth I, Genghis Khan

 

[dIZZyBlIZZy]

This took a good bit of pondering, but I would have to say Joseph Jefferson. There are tons of questions I would love to ask involving turn of the century silver screen. As to drinking what, doesn't really matter.

 

[History_Buff]

Neil deGrasse Tyson. That guy is hilarious.

 

[Disgustipated]

There are several names listed here that I don't know of. I guess I haven't heard of that many famous people. Perhaps I'm not worldly enough.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I go for Oliver Reed, when he was still alive.

Why him, especially? I remember him as Bill Sykes in Oliver! and in a bunch of swashbuckler movies.

George MacDonald Fraser. I want to ask him about the plot of his next novel. He died and it was never written. All we have are some tantalizing hints.

Frank Herbert. Because I want to know once and for all, what the intended plot of the seventh Dune novel was, and what his reaction would be to the crap that his son and Kevin J. Anderson have been putting out. 'Cuz until they publish The Notes, I refuse to believe they existed (unless they exist and KJA/BH decided to do the opposite of what was in them).

Isaac Asimov. I'm sure if I got him rambling he'd give me a thrilling, hilarious, endlessly informative evening of conversation on any subject worth human consideration.

Definitely Isaac Asimov. He's one author I always wanted to meet, but alas he had an aversion to flying so it was pretty much impossible that he would ever attend a Calgary SF convention.

?Carl Sagan
?Richard Dawkins
?Sejong
?Paul McCartney
?Terry Pratchett
Anyone agree?

Carl Sagan would be my absolute #1 choice. I had a chance to talk to him years ago when he was being interviewed on CBC radio and they opened the show to questions from the public. My grandmother told me to call in, but I suddenly got simultaneously tongue-tied AND brain-tied... 'cause what can you say to somebody who helped change your whole outlook on the Universe for the better, in less than a minute? So I chickened out on that opportunity.

Meeting of Minds

Canada had a show called Titans with Patrick Watson as the host who interviewed famous dead people. I remember being fascinated when he interviewed Confucius.

Very tough. Hafiz, Elizabeth I, Genghis Khan

Elizabeth I would be fascinating. I've wondered occasionally what she would think of her namesake's handling of the duties of Queen.


Another choice for me would be Galileo. He would probably be bemused at how many centuries his court case has been taking to get resolved, but what I would really like to do would be to show him the images and data amassed by the Pioneer and Voyager probes.

 

[Hygro]

Jesus of course. As Whiskey Lord put it. He's the only person in history who gets modern credibility for actually being a living god.

 

[Camikaze]

Some would say they drink with him every week.

I think Obama would be a good choice. Hard to go past the most powerful person in the world. So many possible questions.

 

[Hygro]

I'm not saying those people are wrong but I can guarantee it wouldn't be the same....

I might consider Alexander the Great. Educated by Aristotle and made quite a mark.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Groucho Marx, because that would be an awesomely fun time.

 

[amadeus]

If we're including Jesus, couldn't we also include God? Man is made in God's image.

What would God look like? Were I God, I think I would change my look depending with whom I was speaking. Like, in my conversation, God would be a white guy with long silver hair, a big beard, dressed in a white ...gown? You know, Sistine Chapel God.

 

[katipunero]

Derren Brown for sure.

 

[azzaman333]

I'd go on a coke and hookers rampage with Charlie Sheen.

 

[NovaKart]

Lightweights.

I go for Oliver Reed, when he was still alive.

That would be fun. He was one of the first guys to do full frontal nudity in a movie.

 

[El_Machinae]

Socrates.

"Drinks" with Socrates, eh?

TOO SOON FOR THAT JOKE

Abraham (Biblical)

You realise he's in Heaven right? You'd suck him out of Heaven, and slam him into this sin-filled corrupt world, just so you could have drinks with him? Wouldn't that be the height of cruelty? The banalilty and pain of our pathetic, corporeal existence would be a shock of relative agony that can only be compared to us being thrown into the Lake of Fire.

Where's your humanity, man?

Remember how Buffy was sucked out of Heaven by her 'friends', and her life was misery after that? It's like that.

 

[jtb1127]

I would go with Mohammed too. Maybe I could get him to share one of his wives with me.