# If you could meet anyone throughout history, dead or alive, who would it be and why?



## Ryan

If you could meet anyone throughout history, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Let us indulge in fantasy!


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## JCarmel

It would be myself as a child & I could offer myself the friendship & companionship I lacked at the time.
Plus, hopefully...one or two bits of wisdom for later on in life in an easy-to-remember form.


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## Ryan

I did it!!! It worked!


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## Ryan

Well that is a very sincere and touching choice, I think we all wish we could do that at times. I think what we need is a time machine, I am going to go to my shed now to try and build one, I'll let you know when I've built it and managed to use it.


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## Weston

I'd never be able to pick just one. I have many heroes I look up to. Carl Sagan for spiritual inspiration. Jon Anderson because I'm huge fan. Richard Dawkins for pointers on not abiding foolishness. Joseph Stalin for advice on not giving in to other's expectations.

I don't think I'd want to meet Tchaikovsky. It would likely be a disappointment.

I've met quite a few semi-famous painters. They are like anyone else -- some a joy, others are into deviant behavior. I have a lot of fun with the latter.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Ive always wanted to meet Mahler or *Sibelius.*


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## Sid James

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Ive always wanted to meet Mahler or *Sibelius.*


Maybe if we invent a time machine you could go back and meet both of them? You know that famous conversation about what a symphony should be like, they had it in Vienna I think. Mahler said symphonies should contain the whole world and Sibelius said he liked composing symphonies to be able to rigorously explore a set of themes. That's what I remember of that anecdote. So there you go...anyone out there got a functioning Tardis?...


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## Ingélou

I'd like to go back to the court of the Sun King & attend the premières of Lully's ballets & operas. But only if I could be a French aristocrat, obviously. Yours sincerely, Madame la Marquise


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## Kazaman

My avatar might be a bit of a giveaway, but I would love to meet Glenn Gould (although I have come as close as I can, since I know people who knew him, and people who were active in the Toronto music scene when he was alive).


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## guitarnote

I think it would be cool to meet Clara Schumann. Such a talent in her own right, and the object of affection from two of the greatest.

I would also love to just sit, a fly on the wall, and listen to Shostakovich play the piano.


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## Mesa

Brian Wilson.

I'd ask him some harmony writing tips and then probably pass out.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Edgard Varese or Leon Theremin


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## moody

I would certainly like to meet Liszt ,Verdi and Rossini ,I would go to dinner with him !
Also Field Marshal Rommel.


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## Ingélou

moody said:


> I would certainly like to meet Liszt ,Verdi and Rossini ,I would go to dinner with him !
> Also Field Marshal Rommel.


May one ask, why Field Marshal Rommel?


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## moody

Ingenue said:


> May one ask, why Field Marshal Rommel?


Because he was a great man,a bit like Rupert of the Rhine, also as you know I was in the army for a long time.
Also his was the name used during the war to frighten us===not Hitler,I always wondered who he could be.


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## jani

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Ive always wanted to meet Mahler or *Sibelius.*


Sibelius with or without hair?!?!


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## Vaneyes

I could think of something different twenty minutes from now...but currently, I would like to have a tour of Microsoft and meeting/round of golf with Bill Gates.


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## jani

Vaneyes said:


> I could think of something different twenty minutes from now...but currently, I would like to have a tour of Microsoft and meeting/round of golf with Bill Gates.


I like the way you think Mr. Vaneyes!


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## KenOC

Just a comment on the thread title: It would certainly not be useful to meet them dead.


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## BaronAlstromer

The man I got my name from, baron Patrick Alströmer, who was a big fan of music. He almost neglected his work to play or listen to music. He also collected music.
Plus he seemed to be a good man in general.


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## science

Shakespeare around 1610, without a doubt. I'd hang around until I had the accent down, then get him drunk so I could tell him what _King Lear_ meant.

Well, but I would definitely get him drunk.


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## Ingélou

science said:


> Shakespeare around 1610, without a doubt. I'd hang around until I had the accent down, then get him drunk so I could tell him what _King Lear_ meant.
> 
> Well, but I would definitely get him drunk.


 
You'd be one of a crowd, though. There's a legend that Shakespeare's final illness resulted from a heavy night in a tavern with Ben Jonson. And plenty of evidence in the plays - the porter in Macbeth is the best - that he knew what drinking entails.
I love Shakespeare, but I'm not sure I'd like to meet my icon. I might be disillusioned...


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## drpraetorus

My list: Jesus, Wagner (that would be an interesting dinner group), Shostakovich, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Joseph Smith, W. A. Mozart, J.S. Bach (get them to finish a couple things), Margaret Scott (an ancestor, hung as a witch in Salem 1692), Elizabeth 1, Henry VIII, Richard III, Shakespeare, E.A. Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Mary Shelly, Columbus, DaVinci, Michelangelo, Rory O'Connor, Claudius, Augustus and Julius Caesar, Vercingetorix, Boudica, Niall Noígíallach, Connor MacNessa, Arthur, Merlin, The Architect of the final phase of Stonehenge. Im-ho-tep.


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## Ryan

drpraetorus said:


> My list: Jesus, Wagner (that would be an interesting dinner group), Shostakovich, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Joseph Smith, W. A. Mozart, J.S. Bach (get them to finish a couple things), Margaret Scott (an ancestor, hung as a witch in Salem 1692), Elizabeth 1, Henry VIII, Richard III, Shakespeare, E.A. Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Mary Shelly, Columbus, DaVinci, Michelangelo, Rory O'Connor, Claudius, Augustus and Julius Caesar, Vercingetorix, Boudica, Niall Noígíallach, Connor MacNessa, Arthur, Merlin, The Architect of the final phase of Stonehenge. Im-ho-tep.


ah a people person, you social animal you


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## Weston

Weston said:


> I'd never be able to pick just one. I have many heroes I look up to. Carl Sagan for spiritual inspiration. Jon Anderson because I'm huge fan. Richard Dawkins for pointers on not abiding foolishness. Joseph Stalin for advice on not giving in to other's expectations.
> 
> I don't think I'd want to meet Tchaikovsky. It would likely be a disappointment.
> 
> I've met quite a few semi-famous painters. They are like anyone else -- some a joy, others are into deviant behavior. I have a lot of fun with the latter.


In case anyone got the wrong idea, I just want to make it clear my comment on Stalin was a complete falsehood. If no one noticed this is the second thread with the same title, and somehow it got post-dated (or pre-dated, or something). I had put the exact same post in the previous thread, but changed the names around for this one as if someone had actually gone back in time and changed history.

It was a pretty lame idea in retrospect. I have no desire whatsoever to converse with authority figures, especially murderous ones.


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## Ingélou

We've all done that, Weston - had what seemed like a great idea at the time till it came back & bit us who-knows-where. Sympathies!

But I wouldn't mind conversing with non-murderous authority figures. Alfred the Great would be fab - his views on education & law & the best way to bring peace to a troubled land. Bet he liked music too...


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