Dinner Party

People sometimes play a game of asking each other what five or so people throughout history they would invite to a dinner party if they could. It’s an interesting and thought provoking amusement and one that can of course be played solo. As with any game, to play it well one needs to pay attention to the rules. The question is not which five people throughout history one would most like to meet (though that is an interesting one too), but what five one would most like to meet in the setting of a dinner party. That qualifier matters. There are people such as Beethoven or Ayn Rand whom one might like to have met but who probably would not be the very best choices for the sort of genial and convivial conversation and yarn spinning one would like at a dinner party.
Having thought the matter over in only a cursory way, here are my choices:

Mark Twain - obvious and probably would show up on lots of lists;
Benjamin Franklin - wit, story teller, scientist, thinker, Enlightenment renaissance man, fun guy;
William Shakespeare – not only the world’s greatest writer but also, by the evidence of the plays, a lively, wide ranging , fun loving conversationalist;
J. W. Goethe - a sophisticated gentleman of broad knowledge and interests, a great writer, and a fine and amusing talker;
Robert Heinlein – another great writer and gentleman with broad interests, also a fun guy who enjoyed a good yarn.