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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   2709 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 5, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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My grandfather was a bomber pilot stationed on the Aleutian Islands during World War II. With not much in the way of local entertainment, the USO on base would provide what they could. This included a lot of books, and my grandfather either bought or stole the 20th anniversary anthology of a popular periodical that remained in his library until he died. I have a deep love of old books, but that apparently runs in my family, because upon the death of my grandmother (who outlived her husband by 10 years) this anthology was one of only two old books from their library I was able to claim.

In it, there's a wonderful article titled "My Five Best Dinner Companions".

Here is an interesting thought: You and I will give a dinner tonight, and our guests shall be five men we choose, out of all who have ever lived.

I love how, in 1924, le petit caporal is the obvious choice they feel a need to dismiss immediately. They pick Socrates, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Pepys, Montaigne, and Lincoln. Read the short article here.

Myself, any time I am given hypothetical time travel powers, I feel a moral obligation to pick Homer so we can get the missing poems from the Epic Cycle. If my sole purpose was for my own enjoyment, I'd pick Robert Heinlein, and talk with him about our alma mater, politics and space travel. For the sake of an entertaining dinner amongst my friends, though, the only option is Samuel Clemens. That is to say, if anyone wasn't entertained by Mark Twain at dinner, I wouldn't count them as my friend.

Who would you pick?

My four great granddads, none of whom I've ever met, and Hitler for some physical exercise, otherwise they would get drunk too quickly.

I feel a moral obligation to pick Homer so we can get the missing poems from the Epic Cycle

Homer: why the fuck did you invite me, then? I didn't write them, your own... Βικιπαίδεια says so

I've never felt so interested in any specific historical person's outlook that I'd pick them. I don't know what mechanism others use to figure out their picks, it all reads like "le based military leaders and greek philosophers" to me. I probably wouldn't even pick the authors of my current most favorite fiction.

If you put a gun to my head, provided I can pick from living people, I'd choose my top 5 vtubers.

That's quite a different outlook from me; I'd love to learn more about why you think that way. I feel like I could fill a month of enjoyable dinners easily from my imagination, and a year of dinners with some web searching.

Have you ever read and enjoyed a biography? Have you ever seen a live speech and enjoyed the speaker, or even topic? Are there comedians whose sense of humor you relate to? Why wouldn't you take an opportunity to have a more personal experience from any of those people?

I don't recall ever deliberately reading a biography. When a book includes the author's biography in the beginning, I'm annoyed - that's not what I've got this book for.

I also have trouble writing biographies (such as for tabletop RPG characters).

I don't recall being particularly attached to a live speaker, even if I like the topic. I do have particular content creators whose overall style and sense of humour I enjoy.

I suppose I can't think of any topic I'd want their input on that they haven't already released tons of words on (that I have read or listened to).

Thanks for your perspective.

I've tried to get into vtubers and aside from the occasional music video, I have never been able to watch them without getting bored. Who is/are your favorites, and what is it that draws you to them?

You didn't ask me, but I'd try watching one clip of Fallen Shadow. 95% chance instant filtering will sate your curiosity permanently.
Downside: 5% chance your soul is lost forever.

I mostly just watch clip compilations, music videos and sometimes put a stream/recording up in background. They're professional entertainers,and different ones have different draws. Some have a unique brand of humour (Nyanners), physical comedy and chat banter (Zentreya), others scratch the pretty simple itch of "cute girl being silly and chatty while geeking out over the same games I like" (Gawr Gura, Koseki Bijou). Some shine when collabing with others (Fuwamoco, this particular example being a literal pair of twins who almost always stream together). The kayfabe of actually being a shark girl from Atlantis or what have you is engaging.

"You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, living or dead, would you invite?

I’ve always loved this exercise, the imaginary dinner party! What fun! I see Oscar Wilde there, of course, Voltaire, Carol Saroyan Saroyan Matthau (wife of William Saroyan, William Saroyan, and Walter Matthau, and a writer in her own right), Hitler (not witty but quite a “get”), Edie Sitwell, Molière, Oscar Wilde (so witty I thought why not double him and place him on each end of the table so everyone could enjoy his witticisms?), Aristophanes, and Sir Kenneth Dover (to translate Aristophanes’ jokes for the other guests). That’s more than three, but one must assume there will be cancellations. Oh, and Jesus."

from

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/books/review/charlie-kaufman-by-the-book-interview.html

Xenophon, Ernst Junger, Frederick II, Julius Caesar, HL Mencken. I particularly look forward to Junger introducing the other four to mescaline after dinner.

Seems like the dinner discussion would be pretty heavy on military strategy. You wouldn't bring a more contemporary perspective into the mix with someone like MacArthur or McChrystal, or would you expect Junger to offer that?

All of the four military men had highly philosophical outlooks (even Caesar wrote poems and works on grammar/rhetoric, which are now lost), and I suspect they'd rather discuss more abstract things they learned from their experiences in war, exploration, and statecraft. Junger could hold court explaining industrialized warfare to them, but he'd be too modest to go on at great length, and having Mencken would probably shut down any longwinded boasting from the emperors pretty quickly.

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