America's #1 Online Cigar Auction
first, best, biggest!

Last post 21 years ago by Cigarick. 22 replies replies.
Of all people, living or dead ...
Jump to Bottom | Previous Topic | Next Topic
SteveS Offline
#1 Posted: Sat, Jul 20 2002, 7:38 PM EST
Joined: 01-13-2002
Posts: 8,751
Here's a two-part quesion I was first asked in college ... my answers then are still my answers today ...

(1) Of all people who have ever lived, whether they are alive today or not, if you could invite ONE person for dinner and an evening of conversation, who would you pick and why?

(2) Who, among all fictional characters ??

And, since we are all cigar smokers, don't restrict yourself to known cigar smokers ... assume that anyone you choose would also enjoy a fine after-dinner cigar.
carmine7075 Offline
#2 Posted: Sat, Jul 20 2002, 10:02 PM EST
Joined: 10-17-2001
Posts: 40
your answer:

(1) My Grandfather. He was a great man, and everyhting I strive to be. An italian immigrant son who was a blue collar laborer. Not much to anyone but real hero to. Not like some paper sports star, or false politician. He was a hard working stand up family man who is still remebered by many in our city today. That says something about his character. He passed away when I was high school age, and would love to sit down with him now that I am older.

(2) The fictional character that I would like to speak with would be a bit more difficult. of all the books I've read, I don't know one that has really made a huge impression upon me. I guess I would have to say Lorenzo the bus driver (Deniro) in a bronx tale. That story hits close to home, and he was man with great insight and courage.

Not conventional picks I know, but you asked?
jjohnson28 Offline
#3 Posted: Sat, Jul 20 2002, 10:12 PM EST
Joined: 09-12-2000
Posts: 7,914
OK,I'll play.First there's God so I could find out for sure if there will really be a lot of "good" people in Hell when the time comes.



2nd:Any one of our Fouding Fathers.So we could settle once and for all these,what should be common sense debates.The true role the Federal government should be playing(States Rights),the 2nd ammendment and the truth about separation between church and State.



Fictional characters:Huckleberry Finn.Mostly because as a yougun I connected with the story and the boy had cajones.
SteveS Offline
#4 Posted: Sat, Jul 20 2002, 10:18 PM EST
Joined: 01-13-2002
Posts: 8,751
No such thing as a conventional pick ... I've asked this question of different people for years and believe me, yours answers are as conventional as many, many others have been ... sorta like taste in food, cigars or beautifuly women, everyone is different ... it's all good and the various responses can be fascinating ... after some of the others have responded, I'll post my own answers and tell you who some of the more frequent people I've heard named as well as what I think are a couple of the most unusual ...
jjohnson28 Offline
#5 Posted: Sat, Jul 20 2002, 10:34 PM EST
Joined: 09-12-2000
Posts: 7,914
carmine7075 The Grandfather is a great one,only wish I'd have thought of it.Makes my post pale in comparison.Mine was a recent immigrant as well.Most people thought my Farmgrandpa a hard man,he was,most old time family farmers had to be.But he always seemed to make time for the grandkids,even if it was just a quick fishing trip in the early AM before he hit the fields during harvest.I was more fortunate than most of my cousins as my mother thought it a good idea for me to spend most of my summer vacations on his farm while growing up.I'll never forget those times,I'll never forget the man.Thanks for the memory. Jim
jreddoch Offline
#6 Posted: Sun, Jul 21 2002, 3:38 AM EST
Joined: 12-30-2000
Posts: 1,309
Real People: Robespierre. This guy knew how to throw a house party.

Fictional: Tom Ripley (THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY by Patricia Highsmith), IMO one of the most fascinating fictional creations ever. Suave, cultured, and utterly amoral. I admire his pragmatism, completely free of society's mores.

Now that everyone thinks I'm a sicko, has anyone else read any of the Ripley books?
delarob Offline
#7 Posted: Sun, Jul 21 2002, 4:28 AM EST
Joined: 06-28-2001
Posts: 5,318
Real person: Robert E Lee.

Fictional person: The Devil
xrundog Offline
#8 Posted: Sun, Jul 21 2002, 6:35 AM EST
Joined: 01-17-2002
Posts: 2,212
Real person: Jesus. Assuming he could speak english. He could put many questions to rest. I would teach him cribbage and we would shoot the breeze over cards, coffee and cigars.
Fictional:This one is subject to change at any time. I read a lot. Dirk Pitt. I know the Cussler novels are escapist crap. But I have read them all(and am waiting for the next one). I think he would be one hell of an entertaining guy.
jreddoch Offline
#9 Posted: Mon, Jul 22 2002, 3:14 AM EST
Joined: 12-30-2000
Posts: 1,309
I want to make my dinner a party. I hope that's okay.

Real People: Ambrose Bierce, for his caustic wit and Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, a military genius, Revolutionary, Reformer and hard-ass. Few individuals have influenced the history of a single country as much as him.

Fictional character: Thomas Builds-the Fire from Sherman Alexie's THE LONE RANGER AND TONTO FISTFIGHT IN HEAVEN (and the movie "Smoke Signals"). He's my idea of a modern visionary and knows more stories than God.

So would any of you attend my dinner party, if invited?
eleltea Offline
#10 Posted: Mon, Jul 22 2002, 5:53 AM EST
Joined: 03-03-2002
Posts: 4,562
Bertrand Russell. Phillip Marlowe.
xibbumbero Offline
#11 Posted: Mon, Jul 22 2002, 1:29 PM EST
Joined: 01-25-2002
Posts: 12,535
Xrun,All the Jesus's I've ever known only speak Spanish. X
SteveS Offline
#12 Posted: Thu, Jul 25 2002, 8:01 AM EST
Joined: 01-13-2002
Posts: 8,751
Well, I'd like to be able to meet Thomas Jefferson and spend an evening over dinner and cigars ... one of the founding fathers, author of the Declaration, the president who began the expansion of the US in a big-time way, inventor, gourmand and highly noted conversationalist ... in fact, his inventions of the dumb-waiter and the lazy-susan were an outgrowth of his desire to have the conversation uninterupted at the dinner parties he hosted ... wine was brought from the basement and the door from the kitchen to the dining room became the lazy susan, and he served his guests personally ... he was a leading foodie of his time and began using the tomato at a time most in this country believed it to be poisonous ...

Fictional character ... Sherlock Holmes. One of the most renowned minds of all time, a brilliant thinker and, when in the right mood, a fascinating conversationalist.

I liked JRs idea of more than one ... a dinner party, if you will. First among the real people I'd add to the list would be William Bligh (Captain of HMS Bounty, he took a group of men in f-ing row boats (!) through open seas greater in width than the US and got them home to England. "Men Against The Sea" is a story of overcoming long odds equalled by few others (Apollo 13 among the equals).

Second among real people would be Douglas MacArthur. Among the most scholarly and well read of all military people, brilliant mind and one of the best military tacticians of all time. His strategies in WWII saved the lives of millions of Americans, then his stewardship of Japan paved the way for their emergence as a major player in the modern world.

Among fictional characters I think would be fun to add would be Captain Nemo (20,000 Leagues Under The Sea) for reasons that are obvious to readers of Jules Verne's book) and Tom Sawyer (for reasons much like those mentioned above for his friend Huck, but also because he was an original thinker who in adulthood could have become a truly world-class leader of men).
SteveS Offline
#13 Posted: Thu, Jul 25 2002, 8:07 AM EST
Joined: 01-13-2002
Posts: 8,751
Interestingly, despite a rather limited response, answers here are quite typical of what you'd hear if you were to ask this question of others ... Jesus is the most-often mentioned person, but deceased relatives, whether spouses, parents or grandparents are a fairly close second.

Fictional characters, on the other hand, are all over the map, there is no seeming pattern to those responses.

I think the most unusual real-person response I've ever heard came from a woman who said "Elvis" ... I know the King has made more money dead than he ever did alive, but to my way of thinking, there are a hell of a lot more interesting people in the history of the world than Elvis ... to each his own, as they say.
bud451 Offline
#14 Posted: Thu, Jul 25 2002, 8:10 AM EST
Joined: 09-11-2010
Posts: 2,237
My father

Sponge Bob Square Pants
Mr.Mean Offline
#15 Posted: Thu, Jul 25 2002, 8:25 AM EST
Joined: 05-16-2001
Posts: 3,025
my father

Spongebob's predessecer Ren Hoak
BMW Offline
#16 Posted: Thu, Jul 25 2002, 2:47 PM EST
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 3,010
Moe, Larry and Curly(ever see his last smoke in front of the firing squad?) Barry
RICKAMAVEN Offline
#17 Posted: Thu, Jul 25 2002, 2:57 PM EST
Joined: 10-01-2000
Posts: 33,248
geordie
goldengoose7 Offline
#18 Posted: Fri, Jul 26 2002, 8:46 AM EST
Joined: 06-28-2002
Posts: 310
Winston Churchill

Just got done watching the new DVD release of "Chruchill the Wilderness Years" starring Robert Hardy as Churchill.

The video quality was not as sharp as I would have liked, but MAN! Hardy "IS" Churchill! If you have not seen this production, I strongly advise that you check it out!

Considering the real Churchill was one of the few human beings to have a cigar named after him, in a cigar related forum, WHO ELSE would I pick? :o)
Charlie Offline
#19 Posted: Fri, Jul 26 2002, 9:11 AM EST
Joined: 06-16-2002
Posts: 39,751
General Jimmy Doolittle......to discuss military bomber tactics in WWII and enjoy cigars. Fictional character.........Bond, James Bond! Charlie
mhollowa Offline
#20 Posted: Fri, Jul 26 2002, 9:37 AM EST
Joined: 10-03-2001
Posts: 517
1) Socrates. I'm not very good at dinner chitchat. But I think he could carry the conversation.
And at a separate table:
2) Faust. Of course, he wouldn't be a fun dinner partner. But I'd like to find out if what Geothe said about him is true.
xrundog Offline
#21 Posted: Fri, Jul 26 2002, 7:00 PM EST
Joined: 01-17-2002
Posts: 2,212
Hey! how about Jesus and Mark Twain? Is a Psuedonym considered a fictional character? That would be some fun! I would hope that Jesus can take a joke.
RICKAMAVEN Offline
#22 Posted: Sat, Jul 27 2002, 3:20 AM EST
Joined: 10-01-2000
Posts: 33,248
xrundog--of course he can.
look around you.
Cigarick Offline
#23 Posted: Sun, Jul 28 2002, 8:27 PM EST
Joined: 07-28-2002
Posts: 3,078
Real: Leonardo da Vinci, assuming we could communicate. Otherwise either Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin.
Fictional: I refuse to pick a fictional character, so I get to pick another real one. I'd have to say Michelle Pfieffer. We wouldn't even have to talk. I'd just sit there and look at her. Either her or Monica Lewinsky. I hear she likes cigars.
Users browsing this topic
Guest
Back to Top