Who Would You Most Like To Meet?

[PeterRS]

I know that this was a thread topic 15 years ago and hope there has not been a more recent one. If there has, then do not bother to add to this. That earlier thread basically asked members to list three people living or dead - they would like to meet today - and why. The replies in the earlier thread basically included former lovers, best friends and close family members who had died as well as better known personalities.

I expect the problem with those who died some time ago is that we would expect to meet them as they were then even though we have aged. I don't find that a problem. So I'll kick off.

1. The first man I fell truly and passionately in love with - a Japanese who like so many was tragically to die of AIDS.

2. Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, the massively popular gay Hong Kong singer/actor with a worldwide following who equally tragically died too young, by suicide. He is no doubt best-known around the world for two of his large output of movies - Farewell My Concubine which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, and the much grittier Happy Together which was nominated for the Palme d'Or. I did have the pleasure of meeting him once professionally. Apart from his beauty - and he was indeed beautiful - he was equally interesting and fascinating to talk to.

3.  I find keeping the number down to three is very difficult. There are dozens of historical figures I would love to meet, but I think I have a debt I need to repay to my father. He was a family doctor, a profession my siblings joined. I, on the other hand, had not the slightest interest in it. While my father never did anything other than encourage me in the career I wanted, I always felt a distance from him. He tried hard to get close to me, but I had some weird determination that I did not want that. Yet he was an extremely kindly man, adored by his patients, a doctor who had no qualms about getting out of bed at 3:00 in the morning if a patient called. He had also been a prisoner of war of the Germans for five years, being captured as the phoney war started. He should have been evacuated from Dunkirk but some of the men had been transferred west along the coast to the town of St. Valery. They were supposed to be picked up during the Dunkirk evacuation but there just were not enough boats. So only a year after getting married, he was not able to see my older sister until he was repatriated by the Russians when she was five. He never talked much about the war. This was something between the men he was looking after in the camps, not for family. Thankfully my brother has spent much of the last three years finding out a great deal from the families of fellow prisoners whom he has been able to track down. Soon he will print a book for family consumption. I guess I would like to tell him I am sorry that I put up a barrier between us and I wish I had known him better.

[unicorn]

Well, in history, I'd like to meet Ben Franklin, Tom Jefferson, and Abe Lincoln. Among other things, I'd like to ask them if they were atheists. As for real people today, I remember a cousin once asking me, several years ago, if I could show him examples of men who were "my type." The first person who came to mind was Broadway's Nick Adams. He seems like a nice enough man, too. I wonder what he's really like.

As for someone I might actually meet, I've wondered how much it would cost to hire David Archuleta to sing at one of my parties. I'm sure it would be interesting to talk to him for a bit. Quite a few hunky men in their early 30s come to my parties, so he might meet someone nice, if he's not already attached. Well, summer's a ways away.

 

[PeterRS]

30 minutes ago, unicorn said:

Well, in history, I'd like to meet Ben Franklin, Tom Jefferson, and Abe Lincoln. Among other things, I'd like to ask them if they were atheists.

Although you've gone for more than three, I'd like to ask the reason for asking the initial three if "they were atheists.' Presumably you have a reason - and I expect it might have something to do with slavery.

[iendo]

I would say the boys or boyfriends from my past whom I took for granted.

[unicorn]

11 hours ago, PeterRS said:

Although you've gone for more than three, I'd like to ask the reason for asking the initial three if "they were atheists.' Presumably you have a reason - and I expect it might have something to do with slavery.

The reason has nothing to do with slavery. They simply strike me as highly intelligent, so I find it difficult to believe that they believed in God, although they lived in a time in which admitting to atheism was almost unthinkable. When he wrote the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was chastised by other members of the Continental Congress for not including religious references into the document, and was essentially bullied into adding references to God. I'd also like to ask Lincoln if he was gay. Historical documents suggest strongly that he was, but, of course, he never copped to this during his lifetime. 

[Pete1111]

Alan Hollinghurst, British author

I would love to discuss his books with him, especially specific characters and themes.

Herbert Hoover, American president

From a humble background, he became a world famous mining engineer, philanthropist and humanitarian.

Hoover is a perennial scapegoat for America's Great Depression. I'd like to discuss why he decided to run for office and also what shaped his economic policies. 

John Tu, Taiwanese American billionaire

John Tu made his wealth in tech and became a philanthropist.  He is now past 80 years.  Mr. Tu was listening to the Fresh Aire radio show featuring a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist for a newspaper in a small Midwestern town.  Big Agri political forces were forcing the newspaper out of business.  Tu immediately dropped a big deposit in the newspaper's bank account to save them from closing.  I would appreciate hearing about his journey, his memories and his opinions about China and Taiwan, and anything else he wants to bring up.