064 Who's coming?

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

Hello, readers! Our family for many years has played the age-old game of "who would you like to have sitting around your dinner table, fictional or real, dead or alive?"  Sometimes we would keep it to a genre--all authors, all political leaders, all pop culture icons; most times anyone was fair game. The caveat is that when one names the guest, a reason for the invitation must be explained. In other words, why the invite?

If you have never played this game, Thanksgiving would be a great time to try it. Then the family, if engaged in the game, will not be privy to some of the usual impolite “Is it true that you have a boyfriend . . . you’re pregnant . . . you lost your job?” occurring at the table while Uncle Ralph falls face down into the mashed potatoes.

I have created this guest list for my dinner party for the coming week based on my mood! It has been a rather lousy week. Nothing earthshakingly bad--we are well in body if not in spirit. So far this summer, I have had to replace two cars: my 14-year-old Jeep decided to die, bought a new one, which was rear-ended six weeks later by a big red pickup whose driver told the state policeman that he was cleaning his glasses and guessed he didn’t see me! (Duh? Huh?)

When we renovated/upgraded our 1808 house (charming though it may be) 15 years ago, I believe we were naïve enough to think the appliances and upgrades would last us for our lifetime. We are NOT young! However, in 2015 we have had the tin roof redone, upgraded some of the electric so as not to crash another computer, replaced the exhaust fan (no central air), replaced the microwave, the washer and dryer, two new toilets, and the refrigerator comes next Tuesday. 

NO! DON’T! Stop adding it up. It is a LOT of $$ and I am not happy. Think how many trips to NYC and Broadway shows, and baseball games, and and . . .You get the gist!

Here’s the list of party people--or as my husband posits, “She’s stirring the pot again.”

Hilary Clinton--although she was polished and poised in last Tuesday night’s debate, I am disappointed in some of the ways she had handled her duties,e.g., emails! So, let’s see how poised and polished she really is?

Monica Lewinsky--think I will ask her to bring the cigars and wear a blue dress. Truly, I found the whole episode in history titillating at the time. However, with sexual harassment and bullying such issues now, I wonder if Monica thinks she would be “thrown under the bus,” this woman with a degree from the London School of Economics, who is now 42 years old.

Ivan IV, Tsar of Russia (aka “Ivan the Terrible”)--poor boy (too many Russian biographies maybe?). The son of Grand Prince Vasily of Moscow, his parents may have been poisoned and at age 3, in 1533, he became prince of Moscow. The nobles, as in all countries it seems, began fighting for control. At age 13, Ivan become the “tsar” (from Caesar) and was married to a Romanov. Ivan tried to create a Christian state with reforms of both central and local governments. 

Meanwhile, he (Russia) was besieged by the Tatar and Kazan factors on the Volga. He needed access to the sea for landlocked Russia as he wanted trade with Europe, particularly England. Now, to secure the sea, he went to war with Livonia (now Latvia and Estonia). Russia lost not only the sea route but much money, and the war devastated the population. The “terrible” epithet was given as he suspected treason from his Russian leaders whom he put to death. His achievements in foreign policy, however, forced Russia to work with Europe; his ideas were followed by Peter I (Peter the Great) and subsequent leaders. He encouraged cultural growth, particularly writing and printing--often his own Christian Orthodox views (now lost in the great fire of St . Petersburg).

Vladimir Putin, president of Russia from 2000-2008 and re-elected in 2012. Educated in Leningrad and graduating in 1975, he began a KGB career in East Germany. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Putin returned to Leningrad as a “liberal-leaning” politician. In 1998, Putin was appointed to Boris Yeltsin’s administration, in charge of the Kremlin’s relations with regional governments and head of Yeltsin’s Security Council. In 1999, Yeltsin promoted Putin to Prime Minister. When Yeltsin resigned as the Russian president in late 1999, Putin became the acting president and announced Russia as a US ally after the terrorist attacks of 2001. 

In 2004, Putin visited Israel to talk with Ariel Sharon, the first visit to Israel by any Kremlin leader. Giving Edward Snowden of the NSA leaks sanctuary and banning US adoption of Russian children strained US relations. Putin’s anti-gay laws, his disregard for the US fear of Syrian chemical weapons and, not long after the Sochi Olympics, Putin sending troops into the Crimea to save the Black Sea Fleet stationed in there have not helped good will. He did not, he said, want war with the Ukraine. (During this time, popular culture pundits announced that he had been nominated for the Nobel peace prize.) He continues, the international press reports, to participate in the Orthodox Christian church. 

William Shakespeare, the greatest playwright of all times. I want to see who shows up! Was there REALLY a REAL William Shakespeare? No more explanation is needed for this one!

Dorothy Parker, poet, short story writer, satirist, and critic noted for her wisecracking eye on 20th century culture. She wrote for my favorite magazine, The New Yorker, before heading to Hollywood to be a screenwriter. She was a “small f” feminist and a civil rights leader before it was the popular thing to do. Thus, Parker ended up on the famous Hollywood blacklist. My favorite quotation is “Living well is the best revenge.”

Walter Cronkite, the broadcast journalist and TV anchorman and known as the “most trusted man in America.” He reported on WWII, the Nuremberg trials, the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Iran hostage crisis, the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and John Lennon. Cronkite was also the voice of the US space program. He was the soul of America for many years. I need this man at the dinner table to keep it civilized and to ask the best questions. “And that’s the way it is.”

Whom would you invite? 

We Savvy Broads would love to know. 

Glenne