Didn't You Know From the Beginning That This Guy Was Interesting?

|Peter Boettke|

Tyler Cowen links to this article by David Byrne of Talking Heads fame on the perfect city.  From the beginning of public awareness of Byrne, he always appeared to be one of the 'deeper' thinkers from the alternative scene in the 1970s. I love the point he makes about anonymity and experimentation (and failure) in the ideal city.

As a thought experiment, what modern figures would you most like to meet and spend an evening with over dinner and in good conversation? Divide the potential fields into academics; art; and athletics. For the thought experiment to work, it would have to be a real conversation, and not a celebrity arranged event (though I do appreciate the show Icons). I'll start -- Lin Ostrom and Vernon Smith; Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson; Kobe Bryant and Roger Federer.

Comments

[Adam]

Since competitive cooking is the only sport that's not a zero sum game, I'm going with Alton Brown and Mario Batali for athletics.

[Daniel J. D'Amico]

Vincent Ostrom and Loic Wacquant; Johnny Rotten and Tom Waits; Michael Phelps and Chef Morimoto

[Rafe Champion]

A deep thinker? What did you make of the lyrics of his song? You can see why you had to be stoned to appreciate it.

Give me a table with Mises and Popper.
Kruschev and John F Kennedy

[The Cuttlefish of Cthulu]

Talking Heads suck. They'll never be as good as GWAR.

[Troy Camplin]

If by modern we mean living,

Stuart Kauffman and Leda Cosmides

Milan Kundera and Jack White (of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather)

Don't care for sports, so there's not really anyone in the sports world I'd care one way or the other to meet.

[Brian B]

FWIW

Academics - Israel Kirzner and Manfred Max Neef (I disagree with Max Neef on much but having had dinner with him once he was a fascinating dinner companion)

Art - Anthony Bourdain and Wynton Marsalis

Athletics - Fabian Cancellera and Jonathan Vaughters

[M. Walther]

Academics - Thomas Sowell, Theodore Dalrymple

Arts - Cormac McCarthy, Keith Waldrop

Athletics - Joe Torre, Takeru Kobayashi

[Barkley Rosser]

Yes, Pete, it is legend how you used to like to hang out at the no-longer-existing CBGB's in your misbegotten youth, :-).

[Gary Chartier]

Academics—Stephen R. L. Clark, David Schmidtz, John Searle
Art—Whit Stillman and Joss Whedon
Sports—???

[Larry]

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