as an exploratory journey through that old party question: if you could have a drink with anyone in history, who would it be? History is full of people you’d love to have a drink with. Let’s meet a few.
as an exploratory journey through that old party question: if you could have a drink with anyone in history, who would it be? History is full of people you’d love to have a drink with. Let’s meet a few.
Have a drink with: Salvador Dalí Girls, girls, girls. Plus lobsters. Ask him about: But how do you make the giraffe explode? The 1939-1940 World’s Fair was a tremendous attraction, drawing more than forty million visitors to New York over its two seasons to experience the “World of Tomorrow.” Built over 1200 acres on top…
Have a drink with: Louis Wain Auteur of psychedelic fractal cats Ask him about: cat memes “British cats that do not look and live like Louis Wain cats are ashamed of themselves.” – H.G. Wells If you love yourself a good cat photo, you can go ahead and thank Louis Wain. Up until the…
Have a drink with: Napoleon Sarony Work with me, darling. Ask him about: Oscar Wilde, cover girl The author of an interview with the photographer Napoleon Sarony, published in the June 1895 edition of Decorator and Furnisher magazine, was clearly excited about getting to meet such a famous figure. In the style of the modern…
Have a drink with: Marie Tussaud Utility, amusement, severed heads. Ask her about: working motherhood Looking forward to Halloween, I’m at Atlas Obscura today writing about Madame Marie Tussaud, the 19th century entertainer and artist who got her start making death masks of decapitated French revolutionaries. Marie left France at forty years old, with her…
Have a drink with: Gilbert Stuart “The one dollar bill.” Ask him about: Chinese knockoffs In August of this year, news outlets reported that the White House opened the door for the United States Trade Representative (an executive agency that advises on global trade policy) to conduct an investigation of potential Chinese intellectual property abuses….
Have a drink with: The Duke of Wellington Statue “A gigantic triumph of bad taste over public opinion.” Ask it about: Free beer. In the 1830’s, the Napoleonic Wars were still fresh in memory and Britain was eager to redecorate. Since few things say classicism, patriotism and self-praise quite like a good monument, the idea…
Have a drink with: Dr. Seuss Would you, could you, fight the war? Ask him about: why Yertle the Turtle just might be Hitler. We know Theodore Seuss Geisel as a children’s author, a playful champion of absurdity and literacy who gave us green eggs, cats in hats and an absolute lock on what to…
Have a drink with: Maria Altmann and Elizabeth Taylor Art lovers, ladies of style, legal pit-fighters. Ask them about: goddamn Nazis. Behavioral advertising is like unexpectedly running into an ex: it seems to know an awful lot about you in ways you forgot you made possible, but for the most part just makes you feel…
Have a drink with: Leonardo da Vinci Polymath, painter, engineer, left-handed gay underdog genius Ask him about: flying psychic unicorn voyages of the mind The surgeon and writer Leonard Shlain was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008 and died less than a year later, just a week after finishing the manuscript for his book “Leonardo’s…
Have a drink with: Bruno Schulz Writer, artist, cultural property puzzle, cult superstar Ask him about: making hipsters’ heads explode. My husband recently bought a bag from a company whose gleeful tagline was, “They’ll fight over it when you’re dead.” If post-mortem squabbles are really how you know you’ve hit the big time, Bruno Schulz is…
