Who Would You Like to Meet?

[Apollo]

What 3 people from history would you like to meet (assume that you are able to speak a common language), and why?

The most prominent figures in history are political and military leaders, but some other ideas to think about are: writers, philosophers, your own ancestors, explorers/pioneers, and inventors.

Although there have been many great minds through history such as Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, and Isaac Newton, the three I would like to meet are all from relatively rescent periods.
Benjamin Franklin: He was known for many things, including having a large ego and being a womanizer, but he was also a scientist, a writer, and one of the founding members of the United States. At one point he even tried to make himself "perfect", which he considered the culmination of moral values and learning, a very difficult task for someone to take on.
Mark Twain: He too was a very smart person. Most well known for his books, he was also a great thinker, and had a lot of good jokes, several of which I can recite from memory.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: He is widely considered one of the best leaders ever of the United States. He led the US out of the Great Depression and through WW2. He was elected to four terms, all the while having a debilitating disease that would be enough to sideline most people for life -- very inspiring.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

"Franklin Delano Roosevelt: He is widely considered one of the best leaders ever of the United States. He led the US out of the Great Depression and through WW2. He was elected to four terms, all the while having a debilitating disease that would be enough to sideline most people for life -- very inspiring."

He was elected for 4 terms? I thought that each US President can only have 2 terms at most. Is it a special situation (cos of WW2)?

 

[Magnus]

the american constitution originally had no limits to the term of president. However George Washington (the first one) decided after 2 terms, he would step down, and that became a custom, but not a law. FDR was elected 4 times, and the last 2 times had a lot to do with the WW2 situation. Once he was gone from office, it was decided to make an amendment to the constitution to make it law that a president can only be elected twice.

who would i like to meet?

Jimi Hendrix
Genghis Khan
Lady Godiva

 

[Mikoyan]

Attila the Hun
Vladimir Iljitj Uljanov(better known as Lenin)
Karl Marx
Sid Vicious
Jim Morrison
Lemmy Kilmister
Stanley Kubrick
Ozzy Osbourne

I need not tell you why i chose these people,ok then, simply because they are/were cool

 

[Sodak]

W. Shakespeare - the greatest literary mind of the english speaking world, altho I suspect Mark Twain would be better company for one day of chatting...

W. A. Mozart - just to hear him play live music.

Sidhartha - spend a day conversing with the wise one!

 

[Graeme the mad]

Not who'd Id like to meet but who I'd like to have a big conversation with one another: Rommel, SUn Tzu, Alexander the Great, Ogadai Khan and Joan of Arc

 

[.:KNAS:.]

alexander the great
rocky marciano
nostradamus

alexander- we could sit around and drin beer together
he was a well known alcoholic u know

rocky marciano- he could show me some move so i can kick everybodys asses

nostradamus- to see if he really knew all or if he was just stoned, wich is one theory

 

[VanOranje]

Alexander the Great
Julius Ceasar
Hitler

Why these three, we'll:

Alexander The great: so he could explain me how to ride a horse and drink beer like a real man "Because I got my ass kick last year by a pony

Julius Ceasar: So he could take me to a real cool "Roman Party" TOGA TOGA TOGA

Hitler: So I COULD KICK HIS ASS THREE TIMES OVER, AND KNOCK HIS BRAINS OUT WITH A BASEBALL BAT

Thats it !!!

 

[Surf Wax America]

Well, my three (in no order) would be:

1) Che Guevara- I'd just be curious as to how he felt about certain stuff...
2) Cleopatra- She was a fox in her day...

on a lighter note:
3) Starlifter- To see if he's as long-winded in person...

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I would certainly have to meet:
Samuel Johnson - And persuade him to make his English spellings MORE RATIONAL
Lord North- Take it easy on the taxes, man.
Klaus von Stauffenberg - Put the breifcase the other side of the table leg

 

[Sodak]

Originally posted by Crazy Eddie
Samuel Johnson - And persuade him to make his English spellings MORE RATIONAL

Oddly enough, they were sensible at the time and place. But the spoken forms of another region (London, IIRC) became the predominant form in use, and these words did not match the spellings Johnson had used. For instance, Johnson's 'one' was just like 'bone' without the b.

(I don't recall who determined all this, but I remember it from linguistic studies.)

 

[floppa21]

Friedrich Nietzsche
Jesus Christ
Salma Hayek

Nietzsche to talk with.
Jesus to talk with.
Salma to "TALK" with...


Okay so Salma isn't from "history"... If I need to replace her, I'd pick Marilyn Monroe. To "TALK" with of course.

 

[willemvanoranje]

Who would I like to meet? Almost every famous guy in history: the great philosphers (Plato, Socrates, Aristotoles), great war heroes (all Greek and Roman generals etc.). But I really want to meet Churchill, Barbarossa, Hitler, Willem van Oranje, Michiel de Ruyter and Wilhelmina.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Oddly enough, they were sensible at the time and place

Now you're just scaring me Sodak.
I flunked English so of course I have an axe to grind here...

 

[joespaniel]

Erich von Manstein -discuss strategy
Karl Marx -political debate
Sigmund Frued -smack him over the head and scream"quit doing so much blow!"

 

[amadeus]

Karl Marx - so I could stop him and Engels from writing the Communist Manifesto.

Ronald Reagan - during his prime years as President, and maybe even when he was an active Democrat (1940's)

George Bush (former)...disccuss Saddam Hussein, or better known as "so damn insane"

 

[^TheBlackKnight]

Hitler: So I COULD KICK HIS ASS THREE TIMES OVER, AND KNOCK HIS BRAINS OUT WITH A BASEBALL BAT

Loving that remark!

 

[adamsj]

This is such a cool question.

For me Winston Churchill, the Saviour of Britain in it dearest hours!

 

[redtom]

I'd like to meet Hitler and kick him the nuts!

Or maybe that bloke who shot the arch-duke ferdinand to stop the first world war. Thus Britain's empire would possibly still encircle the globe and the expensive wars we would had missed would make me richer!

Redtom

 

[polymath]

Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Poet, Philosopher, opium junkie, and managed to write one of the best poems ever ('Kubla Khan') in his sleep.
Or
Thomas Edison - the greatest inventor in history. He filed over 1,000 succesful patents. In other terms, that's like filing a succesful patent every week for twenty years.