It's My TV….It's My Peanut Butter

Would we drink coffee with Johann Gottfried Herder?

Kristy: Well… I spent the morning reading about him for the umpteenth time and historiography really isn’t my thing, so off hand I kind of want to say no. But on the other hand, my academic discipline owes him a huge debt, which means that I owe him a huge debt. Many of his assumptions about the Volk were hugely problematic, but you have to recognize what a huge deal it was at that time for someone to actually see value in their artistic expressions. And I’m particularly interested and impressed by some of his ideas about vernacular languages. Also, it’s hard not to be amused by a guy who was so entranced by reading Ossian that he didn’t notice when the ship he was on nearly sank. (I realize this story is likely apocryphal, rest assured I will ask about it.) So yes, I will share a cup of coffee with the man. I’d be interested to hear how he feels about the present state of ethnology and folklore. I’d like to know how he feels about his legacy–his ideas have led to great things and horrific things. Was it all worth it?

Cammy: Dude, he’s absorbed in all things German which means I would definitely love a chance to pick his brain. It seems like he was trying to boost German self esteem even before they had their current national self esteem problem brought on by the Holocaust. Rather ironic given that his original attempts to bolster some pride in the German language, history and culture was later perverted to justify and support the shit Germany pulled in WWII. Like Kristy, I’d like to have him talk about that one. And, he had a hand in influencing Goethe, which means I owe him coffee since Goethe is to German literature as Shakespeare is to English literature. As far as discussion of Volk, I’m pretty sure I’ll leave that anthropological-folklore-historiography-other-big-academic-words lifting top Kristy, but even then I’m sure I can take something away from listening in.

Would we have coffee with… Laura Ingalls Wilder?

Would we drink coffee with Sandra Cisneros?

Kristy:  Sure.  I kind of feel like I owe her at least a cup since Cammy and I met the third Reina Protestante, Mary, in a class where one of our big assignments was reading The House on Mango Street.  I also wrote one of my first grad school papers on “Woman Hollering Creek.”  I enjoy her writing because she’s one of too few (IMO) contemporary writers who write stories you can enjoy as casual reading that also have a rich deeper layer waiting to be explored if you so wish.  That balancing act isn’t easy and I think she does it well.  She’s also spent a lot of her life teaching and I’m curious to know whether that was a deliberate choice or just something to pay the bills.  Regardless, I’m interested in her views on education and a whole host of other issues.

Cammy:  Sure thing.  Anyone who chooses to live in San Antonio, Texas already stands a fairly good chance of being worth talking to.  And, as Kristy said, we totally met Mary in a class where we had to read The House On Mango Street.  Only it was La Casa en Mango Street for that class, and it was the first full book I ever read in Spanish (prior to that, the longest thing I’d read was a play).  For my part, I’d love to talk to her about her life going back and forth from Chicago to Mexico.  Nothing like a nomadic back-and-forth-between-worlds life to give a writer fodder for life.  I’m not sure I’d be able to hold up my end of the conversation as well as Kristy, but I’d be delighted to share a cup of coffee and listen in.

Would we have coffee with…Elizabeth Carter?

Would we drink coffee with Simon Bolivar?

Kristy:  Sure.  I have a weakness for revolutionaries.  And as revolutionaries go, Simon was kind of an overachiever.  Most freedom fighters are contented with liberating one country, but no, this man had to liberate the greater part of a continent.  On the other hand, he proved largely ineffective at governing.  Perhaps meeting him face to face would shed some light on that?  I’d be interested to hear what he thinks of later political developments in Latin America and maybe even elsewhere.  Mostly I’d just like to meet him to put a fleshed out face with the name.  You can’t study Latin America without coming across the name again and again, and I’d like to know what the real man was like.  Also… you know… they say he was skilled at liberating countries from the Spanish and women from their corsets.

Cammy:  Well, given that Kristy and I once conjured up a mythical Trek franchise focused on the Federation Starship Bolivar (the top Starfleet Academy grads wind up on the Enterprise.  Where do the slackers at the bottom go?  The Bolivar.  What we lack in accomplishment, we make up for in wacky hijinks, Foosball excellence and managing to accidentally save the Universe), I feel I ought to at least meet the man who originated the name. Beyond that, I know he admired my boy Thomas Jefferson, but clearly he didn’t subscribe slavishly to the TJ view of the world, otherwise I don’t think he would have gone in for that whole life-long presidency thing in Bolivia.  He also apparently didn’t think the political environment in South America would sustain a US style democracy, which is fodder for some serious debate and conversation right there (during which I think Kristy would be more adept than I).  But the real reason I want to meet him?  To check and see if he’s anything like he appears in this Hark! A Vagrant comic strip*.

*If you are not reading Hark!  A Vagrant by Kate Beaton, you are missing out big time.  Speaking of people we ought to have coffee with….

Would we have coffee with Madeleine L’Engle?

I couldn’t think of anyone to have coffee with off the top of my head today, so went with my standard brainstorming strategy of checking Wikipedia’s “born on this day” list and learned today was the birthday of this historic Josiah Bartlett, signer of the US Declaration of Independence.  I’ll be honest, I know nothing about him except what I’ve already written.  But that did make me think of another Josiah Bartlett that would be perfect for this feature.

Would we drink coffee with President Josiah Bartlett from The West Wing?

Kristy:  Yes.  And it doesn’t even have anything to do with his political views (though he and I are fairly well aligned in that department).  I want to have coffee with him because he’s a big ol’ nerd.  Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, speaks five languages, and makes frequent historical and literary references?  Yes, please!  You just know the man could keep up with just about any conversation topic you threw at him.  Also he’s a storyteller, which means that coffee with him is bound to include fantastic tales of a fictional White House, meetings with world leaders, and the Bartlett family.  Finally, but possibly most importantly, the man knows how to bring the funny.  And you know I love the funny.

Cammy:  Sure why not?  First off, we haven’t had coffee with anyone fictional in a while, so that’s a nice change.  Second, I don’t think I’ll have to say much.  Pretty sure he can get going on a lecture and run with it.  While I don’t align with him politically, neither did Ainsley Hayes and she seemed okay with him.  He’s more than just a story teller, the man is a walkin’ book of fun facts.  Like Wikipedia on legs–and who doesn’t love Wikipedia?!?!?  Sure, I may feel stupid for the majority of the get together, but I’ll probably walk away with some serious fodder for my next dinner party.  And, as Kristy said, with this guy, you know at least some of it will be funny.

Cammy: Would I have coffee with Robert Fulton?  Hell, yeah.  While there are plenty of scientists, artists, political figures, etc. who get a shout out in history, there really aren’t a lot of engineers who get any love.  Fulton usually gets at least a good share of the credit for developing commercially-viable steamboats, which really is enough to make him a guy worthy of a cup of joe, but I’m more taken with his development of a working submarine (The Nautilus).  honestly, most accounts of the guy don’t tell you much about him, which is all the more reason I want to have coffee with him.  Is his personality left out of this accounts because, he, like a lot of other engineers, is less apt to talk about himself than what he’s doing?  Clearly this was a smart guy–he taught himself several languages, was apparently a good artist, and spent a lot of time learning–and smart people can be pretty entertaining if you get them going.  As always, getting his perspective on current situations would be par for the coffee consuming course.  What does he think of the current patent system?  What would he think of formalized engineering education vs. the experimentation and trial and error he started out with?  And what the heck is it with engineers and weapons?!?

Kristy:  Eh… sure?  Admittedly, I never heard of the man until tonight (quite possibly more to the point I didn’t remember hearing of him until tonight).  But why not.  The great thing about really smart people from his era was that they tended to be disgustingly well rounded.  Which hopefully means that he’ll be able to converse with an idiot like me who has only a tenuous grasp of basic engineering principles.  And Cammy’s right–smart people tend to be pretty entertaining.  I’m particularly interested to hear his views on education–what should our high schools/colleges be teaching?  It’s changed a lot since his day and I imagine he has some interesting views on it.

Would we drink Coffee with Alfred the Great?

Kristy:  Yes.  While I’m by no means an expert, he seems like a fascinating man.  I like how he seemed to get involved in everything.  And yes, this may have meant he wasn’t exceptionally good at a lot of the things he did, but you have to respect that he understood those things were important.  He managed to keep his kingdom intact in a time of constant warfare and eventually broker some kind of peace.  And he understood the importance of infrastructure building and education–something a lot of people still haven’t figured out today.  In some ways he seems ahead of his time and in other ways the quintessential medieval leader.  I’d like to have coffee with him to get a sense of who he was.  And also to help delineate legend from fact–did he really go to Ireland for medical treatment?  What happened when he went to meet the Pope?  Etc, etc, etc.

Cammy:  Sure, what the hell.  I’ll give him credit for apparently giving a damn about judicial matters and legal reforms.  It’s not a topic that seems to factor into a lot of reigns in history, so when it shows up, I take notice.  His cobbled-together attempt at a legal code (which is by all accounts, a patchwork hot mess of multiple Saxon codes plus some Biblical law thrown in for good measure) is wacky…..but it’s also a foundation for the Common Law system that those of us in former corners of the British Empire know and love.  The chance to talk to him about that little tidbit would be priceless (as would the opportunity to ask him why the hell he didn’t organize it better).  That said, his legal reforms show a serious deference to the important of Lordship, and let’s face it, that’s going to be a philosophical gap that will be tough to bridge.  I might have to hold my tongue, or retreat for refills (I’m assuming we’re going to be hitting the beer over the coffee….)

Would we have Coffee With Mark Twain?