Like a lot of people (really? ?maybe?) I often wonder about random topics, and one is ‘who would I have to a Dream Dinner Party’?

This would be 6 people, irrespective if they are currently alive or not, who would come to a dinner party I’d host, and they should be?able to chat to each other about various overlapping topics.

As you (hopefully) know I’m a baseball fan (obsessed perhaps), so obviously that would be a topic, as would music which is a huge part of my life too… plus a smattering of science, as although it interests me, I am rather useless at understanding it at any sort of low level.

So based on that, these are the people I’d want to invite to my?Baseball, Science and Music Dinner Party and why:

• Richard Feynman
  • Feynman would be my #1 invite for any dinner party on any topic. ?He absolutely fascinates me – his life; his experiences; his interests; they are all amazing. ?I would?listen to him for hours. He also had a great way of explaining science which captivated me at a young age. But it was his life that interested me first rather than his work. It was his involvement in the Manhattan Project and Los Alamos that got me interested in the whole history of physics, rather than physics itself. The more I read of his life, via autobiography, his lectures, his work, the more I knew that any Dream Dinner Party would have to have him as a guest.
• Joan Baez
  • I first came across her music way back when I was growing up. ?My mother loved her voice and played her records. ?I still remember that feeling the first time I heard her version of “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” when I was 7 years old. Her records along with Simon and Garfunkel’s were how I was exposed to music and what I thought music should be: ?the voice as an instrument with lyrics as good as the best, most imaginative poetry. ?Anyway, that obviously led me to her as a person, where I discovered her activism, not like today where it’s a few tweets, but actual arrests, real front line activism. ?I would love to hear about her thoughts on how music and activism came together in the 60’s and how it’s changed (diluted IMHO) since then. Another fascinating life which would make good dinner party conversation I believe.
• Ray Bradbury
  • He is one of my favourite authors. ?I remember reading Fahrenheit 451 at around 8yrs old – my mother always encouraged me to read at a very young age and I grew out of the children’s section of our local library very quickly. ?The idea that words could be regarded as so incendiary, so damaging that you had to burn them was something amazing to me. ?158 pages opened my eyes. ?I couldn’t believe that people could think like that – I was young and obviously more naive at that age – but not for long eh.?? His books made me question the world around, opened me up to new authors, new ideas, but at the core it was he who lit that spark (pun not intended). ?I still have the book?I bought in 1980?for ?1.25, when the library’s hard back became too cumbersome to re-read. ?What a mind, what an imagination, and another guest for my party.
• David Duchovny
  • I first came across David Duchovny when I started watching the X-Files in 1993. ?It was ?sci-fi so something my then boyfriend and I totally agreed on. ?It was great. ?(Funnily enough, it was Gillian Anderson’s picture that I had up on the wall rather than his 😉 ..anyway). ?So following my normal pattern I was interested in him as a person, and I found he was an Eng Lit graduate. ?Then I found out he was a Yankees fan – so that beat out everything else. ??So for the love of literature and baseball, but also now with him writing songs/lyrics whatnot, and that seeming confidence of not really giving a f***, I think he would fit well with the other guests.
• David Hewlett
  • Another very favourite actor. ?I watch anything he’s in, and I wish he was in more every time. ?He is a force of nature. ?If you’ve ever seen any of his youtube/etc videos, he’s not only hilarious but so 100% into his subject. ?He obviously loves geeking out about gaming, computers, science, and seemingly anything at all that interests him. ?I’ve met him couple of times at M&Gs and he is lovely, funny, charming and a downright good guy. ?I can only imagine, if he managed to let anyone else get a word in edgeways with the speed he talks (see brilliant?example here), he would have a great time with the others.
• Alex Rodriguez
  • I could have picked so many Yankee/baseball players, but I picked A-Rod. ?Mainly because from what I read and what others have said, his knowledge of the game is probably one of the best. ?I know he has had so many issues over the years, but I think his love of the game?was and still is his passion. ?It would be cool to see his take on how baseball has changed, and I think he would be an interesting guest on other subjects too.

So yeah, there are my 6. ?You could criticise for too many white men, or Americans or whatnot, but it’s my party, and for those topics, these are the people I’d want there. ?For other topics, I’d have completely different people (except Feynman…).

I never got quite as far as determine the menu – that would be way too weird eh.. but I’d definitely make sure there was something lemon, eh McKay 😉