Hi everyone!

As an artist, I would love to travel to the 1940s and meet Salvador Dali. Not only did he have an incredible mustache, but also breathtaking work! I am so curious about how his mind works and the way he views reality, given his affinity for surrealism. It would be so interesting to learn why he sees an elephant in the reflection of a swan, or to hear how he approaches creating surrealist works that are as sensical as they are whimsical and dreamlike. I have a feeling it would be the most interesting dinner of my life! 

I think it was E.M. Forster in "Aspects of the Novel" who said that when we are thinking of historical figures (or writers of the past) that we should do so in the context of a dinner party, where they are all together discussing the things that engaged and engaging people talk about. So establishing a convention that all the people involved speak the same language, I'd want a small, gender balanced dinner party with people who could be relied upon for epic conversation. Here are some people I'd include:
Queen Elizabeth I
Winston Churchill
Pocahontas
Hatshepsut
Lou Gehrig
Who would you include?

Oh jeeeez.. SOOO many I'd like to meet who are no longer here. I can't even choose.
Would it be bad to say "Thomas Edison" so I could steal his patent for the light bulb? :/

Really hard subject...
I think my preference will be for a great scientist
Maybe Charles Darwin (lunch on board of the Beagle would not be a great culinary experience, however) or Gregor Mendel... The fathers of modern genetics.
Another option could be to travel to ancient Greece having philosophic/scientific discussions with Pythagore or Archimede.


AmaraW : Did you know that I've already been to the center of the world ?
My grandmother was living in Perpignan and the railway station of Perpignan was considered by Dali as the center of the world... Fun fact !

Hmm, I don't know if he would be considered a historical figure per se, but I would love the opportunity to have dinner with Fred Rogers. From everything people have said about him, he seems like the kind of person who could change the way you think about yourself and others just by listening and offering some compassionate reactions.

https://www.qualtrics.com/community/discussion/comment/37262#Comment_37262ElieD Not only is Perpignan stunning, but it is also the center of the universe! You are so lucky to have been. I need to book a trip there ASAP . Maybe I will feel inspired and start painting there!

I would choose Margaret Mead. Her approach to anthropology (making it accessible to everyone, not just scholars) has long inspired me. I'd like to know what it was like to be a woman pioneering the field, what inspired her, and what advice she would share if reflecting back on her life.

Sir Isaac Newton would be someone I would like to spend the day. I have spent a lot of my life teaching students about the laws and theories that he is responsible for developing. I would want to experience his thought process as he worked with inertia or determined the connection of mass and acceleration...and of course we could eat an apple!

I would choose Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She transformed the position of the First Lady. She utilized her role to push for political, social, and racial justice. Even after she left the White House, she continued her work with the United Nations. I'd be curious to hear what advice she would give to our country, almost 60 years later!

Mine is not a historical figure but rather a family member - my great grandfather. He died when my grandfather was a teenager but I have always felt a strange connection to him. He fought in World War 2 and I'm sure would have some amazing stories to tell.

If I had a Time Machine like the one from Back to the Future trilogy, I would want to travel to the time and place where my parents were young adults just meeting each other. Kinda like the McFly family with George, Lorraine and Marty. It would be amazing to see my parents interaction with each other.

It is a really difficult one..
I think I would really love to meet Emperor Nickolas II of Russia and his family. I have always been really interested in their history and heartbroken by their fate. I don't know how the history would turn if they weren't executed by the Bolsheviks, but i would really love to know what they thought what they planned, how they lived.
And below is the picture I took of their signatures left in a guest book of a fishing lodge (now a museum) they visited here in Finland in Langinkoski in 1906.

I would really like to have dinner with Walt Disney and know a little bit more about him, his creative processes and his inspiration!

Sojourner Truth and Shirley Chisholm - right now I'm wondering how to make a difference with the things that I find so glaringly wrong in this country. I have advantages these women never had and they did so much. I would love to talk to them because I feel helpless in the maelstrom of society and I'm just me, but look what they did.