• Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin.

  Not many people remember who the second man to step out on the Moon was.

• Socks Clinton.

  The only individual to reside in the White House during my lifetime whom I can respect. This conversation would transcend words. Perhaps I would bring a gift of catnip.

• Madam Curie.

  It would be good to talk to one of the first women scientists. I'd politely suggest that she treat the radioactivity she helped discover with kid gloves, as it were. (She died young, of cancer.)

• Whoopi Goldberg.

  I don't follow the foibles of actors or actresses. I can't even recognize 98 percent of 'em from one movie to the next. I don't want to -- it interferes with getting involved in the characters as delineated on the screen. But I don't mind her being an exception. I imagine there might be an interesting conversation, or at least she'd lead us off into a whole lot of fun.

• Mickey Hart.

  He was the drummer for the Grateful Dead, a band I never particularly cared about one way or the other. But it is as his work traveling around, spotlighting unknown drummers from a hundred traditions, throwing himself into the depths and heights of drumming, for which I'd be fascinated to meet the man. By the accounts I've heard he's remained unassuming and hasn't let the ego-fame get to him, as happens all too often in the "pop" culture.

• Tony Hillerman.

  The mystery writer whose novels are set on the Hopi and Navaho reservations. He understands the cultures he writes about, and does not try to pretend to be Native American. He seems to be held in high respect by the Navaho and Hopi.

• Molly Ivins.

  A political columnist of some depth and rare good humor are not obtained by being nasty. She'll poke fun, but she'll leave folks their dignity. This, of course, is why most people haven't heard of her. (Politically, I guess, she's "liberal", whatever the hell that two-second sound-bite means these days. Perhaps it means she doesn't need to get nasty to make her points...)

• Winona LaDuke.

  Native American environmental activist, one who works organically with tradition (and traditions, seeing the plurality of how people who are in tune with the land can manage such attunement). She won't be bought off or silenced, and she appears to listen, really Listen, and not just follow any party line. (She's also run as the vice presidential candidate for the Green Party, not to win but to help highlight attention to issues.)

• Neal Stephenson.

  Author of Snow Crash, Diamond Age, and other fast-paced books of imagination.

• Robert Shea.

  Author of Shike, All Things Are Lights, co-author of Illuminatus!. Actually, we have met and conversed, but he's deceased now, alas, and the conversations have been cut short. He was one of the few Libertarians I've met who actually put an organic heart into concern for other people. I miss him.

• Patti Smith.

  In her heyday she was quite a potent rocker, going places that the rest of the music scene took another ten years to catch up to. Many of her song lyrics point to a woman of brash and off-beat interests.

• Clifford Stoll.

  Yup, he goes around criticizing the Internet. Essentially, though, he's saying that it's not the end all and be all, and while it need not go away, many folks out here need to go and get a life with real people and not the images of people they think they see here. But, the point is, he sees the complexities of this issue, which leads me to suspect he'd see the complexities and grays within a lot of other issues as well. (I have a strong distaste for "either/or-isms", and life simply isn't long enough for me to desire to put up with their proponents for any stretch of time.)

• Mark Twain.

  Yes, he was a product of his times, but then again, who isn't?? When he wanted to look at the world with a cynical, jaundiced eye, he could do so quite well and quite wittily. Besides, he had horrendous house decorating sense, which is fine by me.

• Varro E. Tyler.

  Author of The Honest Herbal and Herbs of Choice, he makes a point of treating the study of herbs in a scientific manner. No rumors of wonder, no statements that herbs don't contain chemicals -- right there this would make for a fascinating discussion with someone who sounds as if he has some clues as to what he is talking about.

• There's Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, and Martin Luther King Jr., all fascinating folks who touch/ed the spirit of the world. They know well that life is not all facts and figures. But they've gone so far that I don't know what all I'd be able to say to them.

Last Updated: December 24th, 1996