Frazz by Jef Mallett for January 28, 2024

Just don’t have a drink with Socrates.

Rudolph Diesel. I’d ask what really happened when he disappeared. in 1913. Where did he go and what did he do?

Stephen King. I have always wanted ‘Survivor Type’ to be made into a film.

FDR.

Nikola Tesla

Hmm. I’m told that many authors aren’t so great at conversation. Though the two that I’ve known are pretty reasonable at it.

Ms. Olson has the right idea, set the ground rules early

Would have liked to talk with Sean Connery. And with a peasant in the Middle Ages.

Where would they want to eat? Do I have to dress up?

Terry Pratchett.

Looks like a Jeff Koons.

They’d have to speak English or we’d be eating in awkward silence.

Janis Joplin

I’ll have what she’s having!

Kevin Kelly

Carl Jung

If it can be two people, I’d like to listen in while Einstein talks with Newton. We had all these nice neat “Laws” of physics from Newtonian Mechanics until Dr. Einstein came along.

Tossup between Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

Harry Truman, Teddy Roosevelt, C.S. Forester, Nevil Shute, John Steinbeck, Daphne Du Maurier, Madeline L’Engle, Pearl Buck, Isaac Asimov, Agatha Christie, H.G. Wells, Helen MacInnes, . , ,

OK OK it’s a buffet, but why not splurge if the opportunity arises.

Do we have to talk? I’m trying to read here!

A Lebanon bologna sandwich — the finest food made by the hand of man.

Hunter S. Thompson.

I forget who said when asked, “What person, living or dead, would you like to lunch with?” they would answer, “Living. Dead people smell funny.”

Sidenote: it’s a pet peeve of mine that the snowmen that appear in comic strips are so often physically impossible to make. I realize it’s a snow dog in today’s trip, but the point holds true.

Some college buddies and I set out to make one of Calvin’s creations. We couldn’t do it – snow simply wouldn’t stay that way. And it required a lot of sticks of specific shapes.

Abraham Lincoln

Jefferson and/or Madison. We just got to talk about that electoral college stuff!! And, phasing out slavery, and popular vote and gerrymandering. It wouldn’t be a short conversation.

Marianne von Werefkin

Dali Lama, Steven King, Hemingway and Tom K Ryan

This strip is often drier than an off brand saltine that’s at least a week past the ‘best by’ date on the box.

My Grandparents and my Great Grandparents. I knew only my maternal Grandmother and she lived across the Atlantic; saw her rarely. The rest died long before I was born. I have since become a Grandfather AND a Great Grandfather. Lemme tell ya, it was a steep learning curve as I had no mentors…but don’t get me wrong, it’s been a blast.

I’m rethinking, for an entertaining lunch I’d take Tolkien. He was a story teller. He didn’t sit in a secluded cabin and write, he told his children stories and evolved them into novels.

Very funny! Love it. Two simple answers to a complex hypothetical question.

George Washington Stephen Crane Edgar Allan Poe

At the moment, I’d have to say either Kurt Vonnegut, Terry Pratchett, or Christopher Moore.

But other times, it might be Mother Jones, Eleanor Roosevelt, Thaddeus Stevens, Guy Clark, Bernie Sanders, Jerry Garcia (pre-smack), Neil Cassidy; I wouldn’t mind a chance to ask Thomas Jefferson how he’d reconcile his brilliant theorizing on liberty & equality with raping his slaves.

But maybe most of all, my paternal grandfather or my maternal grandmother.

Mark Twain or Terry Pratchett

I’m likely one of many who will be “borrowing” Mrs. Olsen’s response the next time I see/hear that question. Good one. One more for Terry Pratchett, add Neil Gaiman. Just so they get to hang out again together one more time and I get to kibitz.

My parents

Probably Richard Feynman.

Sir Pterry Pratchett

Lots of great suggestions, though with most of them, I’d be too intimidated to talk much.

Can I toss in a vote for Shel Silverstein? I might not learn much, but it would be a trip.

All these answers, on a Sunday, and nobody wants to sit with Jesus.

It always irritates me when asking about possible lunch companions, etc., the question is phrased with ‘what’ instead of ‘who’.

George Carlin. And I’d ask how he’d like to stick around for dinner on me as well.

Salvador Dali.

Emily Carr, Maya Angelou, Miriamma Thampy, Hadassah,

Putting aside cultural and generational barriers, I’d prefer to have a meeting of the minds with someone who sees me as an equal, with whom I can actually talk which would exclude most of the men in history and many who are still living. They tend to have pre-conceived ideas of what a woman might be there for.

Does currently alive count as “from history”?

“What if you could have lunch with … anybody from history?

1) Choose only one, “above” all others? I don’t see a point to that.

2) With those who disappeared, would it be possible for them to tell the circumstances of their disappearance? (Jimmy Hoffa comes to mind.)

3) To what purpose? To ask what they think is important today? To ask their opinions/advice on topics that I think are important? To make suggestions about what I think they should have done? Hmm… maybe to get the “truth” about their media “scandals”?

With any of the above and more, I don’t see how such a lunch could be of any practical benefit to me or those I care about.

4) Besides, I’ve already had conversations — though mostly not accompanied by lunch — with a few of those suggested here… and several that I expect would eventually turn up if this thread continues long enough.

There have also been a few near misses. E.g., a friend was late for a meeting because she had been at a memorial service for a recently departed family friend… Isaac Asimov.

Poor Mrs O has definitely experienced the monkey paw effect!

Many of the people I’d most want to meet have reputations as not being pleasant companions (famous wits are often insecure, depressed drunkards). Fred Rogers is probably the least likely to be disappointing and/or disillusioning, so I’m going to say him. But he was a vegetarian, so I wouldn’t want to meet him for dinner…

Jesus and/or his mother.

Jesus and/or his mother.

There’s a marvelous book out there – 1942’s “Van Loon’s Lives” (by Hendrik Willem Van Loon), the gist of which is that the author finds he is able to invite historical personages to dinner by slipping the invitations under the stone lions at the public library – and they show up! So he has them over, two by two, in in fascinating pair-ups; Queen Elizabeth 1 and Byzantine Empress Theodora, for one. Yes, they all speak the same language or at least are able to communicate perfectly somehow. It’s a lot of fun and also reflects a lot of historical research.

Moses

And he didn’t say Frazz?