If you could go back in time...

[nudeyorker]

If you could go back in time to visit a person or situation... where would you go and why? ( I typically hate abstract questions but my brother has been on my mind all day today)

 

[D_Amyntas Lillydong]

ted healy and his stooges on vaudeville. the stooges being moe, larry, and shemp. because i could use the entertainment and a good laugh right now.

 

[BigDallasDick8x6]

If you could go back in time to visit a person or situation... where would you go and why? ( I typically hate abstract questions but my brother has been on my mind all day today)

Wow, tough question. I'm going to rule out visiting lost loved ones because it would be too hard to decide, so I'll limit myself to historical figures and events. I have always wondered what it would be like to "be there" when history was in the making. Then one day I was talking to a guy who was there the day a bunch of women burned their bras in front of the Atlantic City Convention Center during the Miss America pageant. He and his wife thought -- "What a bunch of wackos!" They had no idea they were witnessing the beginning of the modern "Women's Lib" movement. So I realized that a lot of people who witnessed history probably didn't realize it at the time (exceptions would be tearing down the Berlin Wall, etc.) so I'd want to go back with my modern knowledge intact so I could appreciate what I was seeing.

It would be great to go back in time to solve some mystery that historians argue over or even have no clue about. Again there are so many good ones to chose from it's hard to decide.

Therefore I'm going to go for the biggest bang for the buck and choose ancient Athens. So many of the world's supergeniuses clustered together in one small area. How long can I stay? Do I have to come back? I don't need to come back. Ideally I'd be there about a year before the death of Socrates, through Plato's teaching at the Academy and until the end of Aristotle's teaching at the Lyceum. In other words 378 BC to 323 BC. I would miss Euripides, Sophocles, Aeschylus by a century, but their works would be widely performed. Also Pericles would have passed a century earlier and Archimedes well before that, but we could discuss their works for hours. (Did I ever mention I love to argue endlessly? :wink: )

And then there was all that intercrural sex going on. I am very fond of intercrural intercourse. Baby oil wasn't around then, so we'd have to use olive oil. I would adapt. :biggrin1:

 

[2322]

My list is nearly endless. Private desires tend to focus on regret so I prefer not to disclose any of those other than going back and catching the cancer earlier.

Otherwise, however, I would love to:

Tell Caesar that whatever he does, not to burn his ships in the harbor of Alexandria.

Warn the Minoans about Thera.

Teach Galen about making antibiotics.

I'm torn about spending 10 minutes alone with a baby Hitler, Genghis Khan, Stalin, Pol Pot, and Tojo plus a few more I dare not mention. I'd like to think I could prevent the deaths of millions in one fell swoop, but would I? Might someone worse appear instead? Do men make the times or times make the men? At the very least I would have advised von Ribbentrop to make certain he placed the bomb on the other side of the table leg and for Lenin to have Stalin shot while he had the chance, but would anyone listen to me?

 

[crescendo69]

I wish I could pevent a friend from dying by getting him to proper heart surgeons, but I fear I may be in for a "Groundhog Day" experience; perhaps it was just his time. Otherwise, just to see him again..

 

[vince]

I don't know if I'd want to go too far back, because if I changed the course of human history, then perhaps none of us would be here to have this discussion. I'd have to limit it to a date after the birth of my child. I would like to visit my aunt one more time and make her last days a little more comfortable and tell her how much I love her. I always wished I was in Berlin in 1989, so that would be cool. But maybe the best thing would be to tell Al Gore to spend a couple more days in Florida in 2000.

 

[JustAsking]

Somewhen between 1750 to 1850, London with the provision that I could become a member in good standing of The Royal Society. I am obsessed with the history of science during the Enlightenment.

 

[2322]

Somewhen between 1750 to 1850, London with the provision that I could become a member in good standing of The Royal Society. I am obsessed with the history of science during the Enlightenment.

You should read Darwin's Insectivorous Plants. It's a thorough investigation into his processes and he writes extemporaneously throughout the book on whatever strikes him. Darwin was so delighted by carnivorous plants that he once said, "I care more about Drosera than the origin of all the species."

No small comment.

One of the things about astronomy which I've always loved is that amateurs can make substantial contributions to the field rather easily and, sometimes, spectacularly.

 

[HazelGod]

I'd go back to the Google IPO.

 

[JustAsking]

You should read Darwin's Insectivorous Plants. It's a thorough investigation into his processes and he writes extemporaneously throughout the book on whatever strikes him. Darwin was so delighted by carnivorous plants that he once said, "I care more about Drosera than the origin of all the species."

No small comment.

One of the things about astronomy which I've always loved is that amateurs can make substantial contributions to the field rather easily and, sometimes, spectacularly.

Yes, I remember reading about that Drosera comment somewhere. For someone who gave us one of the biggest idea going, he certainly had a love for painstaking and minute detail. One doesn't have to go beyond his own books to find enough evidence for Evolution.

I love the way scientists wrote in those days. The two cultures had not yet formed, so the great minds in literature, science, and philosophy all hung out together and felt they were all working on the same things.

I am currently reading "The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science", by Richard Holmes. The best part of this book is the intimate description of Wm Herschel and his sister Caroline's life and work as amateur astronomers who ended up making massive contributions to astronomy.

Another one you might enjoy is "Decartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason ."

I wish we lived in the same town. You and I would be great drinking buddies.

 

[Yorkie]

It would be great to go back in time to solve some mystery that historians argue over or even have no clue about. Again there are so many good ones to chose from it's hard to decide.

Given your location I thought you'd choose 22nd November 1963.

Are you allowed to intervene and change history in this scenario?

 

[D_Fiona_Farvel]

Where - March 4, 1947 in Indianapolis, Indiana on a Greyhound headed to California.

Why - Hoping to be, "confused", feeling my "entire life upset" , "metaphysically amazed" and "passionate" all at once.

 

[Krusader]

i would visit Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great

 

[2322]

Yes, I remember reading about that Drosera comment somewhere. For someone who gave us one of the biggest idea going, he certainly had a love for painstaking and minute detail. One doesn't have to go beyond his own books to find enough evidence for Evolution.

I love the way scientists wrote in those days. The two cultures had not yet formed, so the great minds in literature, science, and philosophy all hung out together and felt they were all working on the same things.

I am currently reading "The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science", by Richard Holmes. The best part of this book is the intimate description of Wm Herschel and his sister Caroline's life and work as amateur astronomers who ended up making massive contributions to astronomy.

Another one you might enjoy is "Decartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason ."

I wish we lived in the same town. You and I would be great drinking buddies.

Now I have to read that book about the Herschels. Patrick Moore's astronomy books really got me going and I became a big fan of the Herschels. It impressed me no end that there was a woman working in science in those days and found their story fascinating. I can imagine the two of them trading Uranus jokes.

I was lucky enough on my last trip to Ireland to visit Birr Castle, the home of Lord Rosse's 6-foot telescope. It's been fully restored (sans objective mirror) and it's as amazing as you might imagine. What a shame the poor man lived in one of the cloudiest places in the world! That visit meant a lot to me because it was a page of astronomical history come to life.

It's a pity that the very rich don't seem to have the same bent of inquiry that many of them seemed to have in those days. Emperor Hirohito seems to have been the last of the ennobled scientists. There is so much that sheer wealth and a directed mind can achieve for humanity beyond just another brand of bottled water.

 

[D_Kay_Sarah_Sarah]

I would love to go back and be at the original Woodstock, or La's sunset strip in the late 60's. Imagine being able to see the likes of Hendrix, The Doors, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The kinks. :notworthy:

 

[B_Stronzo]

Great thread nudeyorker.

My response is entirely subjective.

If I had the opportunity to go back in time I'd do an "Elizabeth Montgomery" to when I was seventeen and land back in the days immediately prior to my brother's death.

Still it haunts me why I didn't see signs of his depression and why I wasn't perceptive enough to somehow stop his suicide from happening. Lo these many years later it's a bit silly but still it occurs to me more often than I'd like.

The "what ifs" are the worst part.

 

[BigDallasDick8x6]

I don't understand the Elizabeth Montgomery reference. (She was PHENOMENAL in Dark Victory, btw.)

 

[nudeyorker]

I don't understand the Elizabeth Montgomery reference. (She was PHENOMENAL in Dark Victory, btw.)

I did not understand that either, and yeah she really blew Bette Davis's performance right out of the water, I think it helped having Michelle Lee as a co-star!

 

[B_Stronzo]

lol nudeyorker ;-)

 

[2322]

I don't understand the Elizabeth Montgomery reference. (She was PHENOMENAL in Dark Victory, btw.)

I did not understand that either, and yeah she really blew Bette Davis's performance right out of the water, I think it helped having Michelle Lee as a co-star!

Would it have been better to say, "Samantha Stevens?" I think he meant going back in time like she did on Bewitched.

And I third her Dark Victory performance.