I found a list called “The 25 most popular icebreaker questions based on four years of data“. So I’m gonna post a few, and see what happens.
Your mission: answer the question in the comments with a good story.
If you don’t have a good story, you are encouraged to make one up.
Who’s someone you really admire?
As I was descending Mt. Everest, I passed Sir Edmund Hillary on his way up. Guy paid me $500,000 to keep my mouth shut about him not getting there first.
I deeply admire anyone who gives me a lot of money.
Re: The question:
We’ll take it for granted that religious figures are off the table because, well, by definition they are admired.
As I consider the question, what Iowa Jim said recently about Mozart would put Mozart on my list, but that hardly seems fair because I know so little about Mozart.
Life seems to be a process of learning who you admire. It could be the guy who tomorrow picks up a crying kid on a sidewalk.
Quick responses, though:
da Vinci
Shakespeare
Dickens
Edmund Burke
Patton
Gandhi
Washington
Jefferson
Adams
Madison
Raoul Wallenberg
Oskar Schindler
All the guys in battle who laid down their lives for their buddies for a cause that was just
After war heroes, it seems anticlimactic to add Louis Armstrong, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, or Dickey Betts, but I do admire them.
And the Monty Python crew.
Hell, for many years I’ve admired Frank, Harvey, and Basil for their succinct, and humorous, summations of opinions that I applaud.
Re: The answer:
This is why I suck at cocktail party questions.
scratches Oppo’s name off invitation list
Damn!
It’s because of Lennon.
Don’t bother — I know.
I actually considered redacting him, but . . .
The other Lenin probably would have made the cut.
Today, the other Lennon might well have been singing: “Love, #MeToo.”
I’ve always admired Raquel Welch in a very deep, personal and spiritual way.
I admire the guy who invented beer very, very much. In fact, almost as much as I admire the guy who invented Glenlivet single malt Scotch. On the other hand I don’t admire the guy who invented MD 20-20.
Being a confirmed misanthrope, I can’t really say I admire anybody, to tell the truth. My take is that people can be loveable, but are never likeable. It’s why God commanded us to love one another, rather than to like one another, because God never asks us to do the impossible.
You least of all.
Why don’t you just go sit under a bridge somewhere and end it all? How miserable can a person be? A misanthrope choosing to live in one of the world’s most crowded cities. Talk about miserable!