| | My criteria in selecting proposed dinner guests was that they were interesting in and of themselves, that they also had some general impact on history, and that they also knew others of historical import. The person I was most tempted to omit was Oscar Wilde, as of little historical influence. But he was still widely travelled in the upper circles of his day, had a real impact on literature, and was, of course, one of the greatest wits ever.
Regarding Jefferson, of course he would be a good choice, but I figured that if I chose more than one of the Founding Fathers, there would be nowhere to draw the line. I chose Franklin since he was better travelled than Jefferson, more accomplished scientifically and entrepreneurally, and was a much more active character in the revolution. Jefferson has great characteristics, but without him, while we might have ended up with a Washingtonian monarchy or, at least, a much stronger executive, without Franklin I doubt there would have been a principled revolution - an anarchical rebellion perhaps - but not the reluctant revolution that we happily got.
Again, my ulterior motive is to get people to make suggestions like Ditko whom I would never have considered myself.
Ted
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For me, it was a toss up between Herodotus and Claudius Caesar.
