“Who would you rather dine with?”

26 Replies to ““Who would you rather dine with?””

1. I prefer cheeseburger to goat cheese tofu seaweed salad, so I’m sayin’ Ford.

2. Definitely Ford, the menu and the company would be more fun. Besides, if it was Atwood, I’d get loaded and say: “Jeez, if you could resist stuffing tired lefty politics in your work, you might have been good. Okay, not good, but not bad for Canlit.”

3. I don’t know, it might be fun to have dinner with someone who’ll berate me for being a mysoginist, racist, homophobe who is full of greed.(Being I am a white male, I MUST be these things) Then insist that I pay for the meal as it would be beneath her dignity to actually have to pay for something herself.
   I think Rob Ford would be the kind of guy to have over for the backyard BBQ. Have a couple pints with, and watch the baseball game with. You know, the things we lesser mortals do.

4. In a normal world, I’d rather dine with Rob Ford any day. He’d certainly be more fun to converse with, especially if you don’t want to discuss how every white male is a racist misogynist etc etc. He’d probably be willing to debate the finer points of hockey, laugh at politically incorrect jokes, and not expect his guest to pay the bill.
   Atwood would only be fun to dine with if you constantly mention OTHER literature and never hers, and anytime she brought up one of her own works, ask who wrote it. She’d probably turn a fascinating shade of purple by the end, but that would be about the only upside.

5. I would much rather dine with Ford. One look at the alternative and I’m off feed for a week.

6. Irene – lovely thought re Ms Atwood. I can’t say I found her overly readable, and – not going in for masochism – avoid her work.
   One of our offspirngs took an English course at uni, part of which involved studying a play by a well-known Canadian icon. Said offspring couldn’t stand the play, but couldn’t say that and still pass. So, solution was to self-identify as being of the same identifiable group as one of the characters, and complain that said character was portrayed in a derogatory and stereotyped fashion. It worked.

7. Atwood. I’d get to eat something.
   Like you, she was recently in Israel.

8. A meal with either would be interesting. Politicians
   usually have some good stories, if they are not
   afraid to tell them.
   As for Margaret Atwood, my real interest is in her
   father the entomologist. But I would ask her how
   his work had influenced her – she is good at
   putting words together but her secret is that she
   sees people as bugs and describes them that way.

9. There’s a poll there if you’re inclined to vote

10. Me and Doug doing wings and beers on a patio and having a smoke or two afterward sounds good.

11. Ford.

12. Good Lord… If Atwoods dinner conversation is even remotely like her writing I’d probably be wanting to slit my wrists by the end of the soup course. Eating with that pompous creature is a prize? Really? I would rather have a root canal.

13. I was forced to read “A Handmaid’s Tale” in high school. One of the dumbest books I have ever read. I wouldn’t have read it If I didn’t have to. I don’t remember much of what it was about any more, so I would re read it and then tell Marge how stupid it was to her face. That would be worth the price of admission.

14. I would ask Atwood if the dehumanizing words which the Palestinians (and Muslims in general) use to describe Jews – descended from monkey or pigs – are the same as the ones which the Israeli’s use to describe the Pals?
    I would poke and prod that leftist troll until she would pay the bill and leave…but I would pick Ford, so I don’t have to think about that ever again. Much rather talk taxes and football and ask how he liked being upstaged by Don Cherry as he sat in the Mayor’s Chair.

15. I actually pictured Margot Kidder when I first read the question,and thought of Ms. Kidder dining with the Simpsons.
    That would have been a tough pick,lefty lunatic or straight shooting politician.
    Now that I know the score,Mr. Ford would be my choice,as long as the dinner isn’t one of those chinese food type settings where the quickest gets the most.

16. Ah yes. Margaret.
    Soft lights…the music way down low…some stimulating conversation…”Maggie, Maggie! Quick, Quick! Pull my finger!

17. I’d pick Margaret. I’d go in my best clown outfit and to the most expensive place to eat in Toronto – you know, where the late Jack Layton always ate. Problem is, I’d want to be tempted to play with my food and have loud laughter comming from our table … NOT … I think a BBQ with a Ford would be more realistic and we would both feel comfortable.

18. “I was forced to read ‘A Handmaid’s Tale’ in high school.”
    I hear you.
    Funny though how the book’s premise suddenly becomes so much more workable if you drop the Christian fundamentalist leitmotif and replace it with an Islamic fundamentalist one.

19. Rob Ford knows how to eat.
    Just sayin’.

20. How stupid are these Globbers, any sane person would rather go over Niagra Falls in an unpadded barrel than sit anywhere close to someone as vapid and empty headed as Atwood. This invention of the Canadian “intelliduncia” couldn’t keep the attention of a stoned cobra snake. Fire up the barbie, grab some cool ones Mr Ford, I’m bringin the steaks.

21. dizzy at 7:27. I clicked on your link; it’s the most Atwood I’ve ever read. She is only half honest in claiming “a mind as open as it could be without being totally vacant.”
    I’d choose Atwood as a prandial partner and focus the conversation on Kate.

22. I attended a Rob Ford fundraising BBQ at his home during the election.
    It was the most multicultural event I have attended in Toronto in the 25 years I’ve lived here (not counting the equally, literally color-ful party for Mark Steyn held at Lord Black’s home — that was a private function.)
    He has an annual BBQ and the invitation just went out for this year’s event. Hundreds of people will be there. So folks already “vote” to dine with Ford every year. 🙂

23. Definitely not Margaret Atwood.
    She barely opens her mouth to speak. I can’t imagine how excruciating it would be to watch her force her mouth open to eat.
    I’d probably have to do all the talking and would be forced to tell her how much I hate her work. It’s cold, it’s spiritless, it’s self-consciously clever and Canadian, which drives me crazy. Somehow, Robertson Davies could situate his fiction in Canada without Canada becoming one of the main characters, which happens far too often in Atwood novels.
    Atwood almost single-handedly put me off Can-Lit forever.

24. odd how when I refresh the page at the g&m poll, the number of votes for Ford keeps going down…..

25. Ford,.. and I don’t know who this Atwood person is you guys are talking about.

26. I would have lunch with Atwood and gladly debate her stupid marxist anti semitic crap the entire time.
    I don’t know how many dinner lunch things I’ve had to moderate myself, so as not to offend the feeble minded who usually try to end our discussions with something like “I don’t want to talk about it”, because they’re losing.
    Both barrels, starting with me holding her chair as she sits and ending when she walks away and me finishing a fat cigar.
    I’d truly cherish the opportunity.