If you could go back and give some famous person 30 - 40 more years of life who would it be? I would

[applegrove]

save either Bobby Kennedy or Martin Luther King.

[undeterred]

1. the Lindbergh baby

[Logical]

3. Why over any other baby? Some people would be a sure bet to help society. Hard to tell with a baby.

[undeterred]

5. This was a famous baby.

And this is the Lounge.

[Logical]

7. Grant you that!

[undeterred]

9. I would also like to give my last dog 30-40 more years of life

but that would make him a really famous dog and I don't know if he could handle it.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

63. Do you know about the guy who says he is the Lindbergh baby???

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2008/03/22

[lunatica]

2. I agree about MLK jr.

He was the one who convinced John and Bobby Kennedy to take the Civil rights movement seriously, and he was already becoming anti-Viet Nam war when they killed him. And another reason why I would pick him is because he wasn't a politician. He was also right.

[Denninmi]

4. Well, since we've already had the Kennedy's and MLK.

I think I'd vote for John Lennon.

[ohiosmith]

6. Edgar Allan Poe.

[Orrex]

8. Schubert

So he can finish that damned symphony.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

64. Yep, the eighth.

He was only 31 years old.

Famous epitaph by Franz Grillparzer:
"The art of music here entombed a rich possession; but even far fairer hopes. Here lies Franz Schubert."

The Trout Quintet and the Quintet in C Major (last thing he wrote) are among my favorites.

[Logical]

10. Tiny Tim

[RebelOne]

11. JFK. Our country would have benefitted if he had llived longer. n/t

[charlie and algernon]

12. Mozart

[treestar]

38. +1

Can't even imagine what the 60th Symphony would have been like and we'll never have it now!

[Odin2005]

58. I wonder what his later works would have been like.

Would he have joined in the emergence of the Romantic Era?

[El Supremo]

61. ditto

[elleng]

13. RFK.

Really would have changed things.

[applegrove]

14. I was too young to remember him or his death but he always struck me as a fighter for the little

guy and think 8 years of him would have been wonderful.

[Graybeard]

16. RFK was putting together a coalition of

College students, labor (blue-collar hardhats) and minorities.

He had growing support from each of these groups.

[NCarolinawoman]

15. Theodore Roosevelt.

30 or 40 more years of sweeping environmental activism.

Heck, I'd like to give him eighty more years and watch him go after mountaintop removal and the keystone pipeline. Not to mention, all those oil conglomorates.

[pitohui]

17. philip k dick

while i suppose he would have behaved badly, considering that hollywood has made, literally, billions of dollars off his ideas, it seems a shame that when he died in 1982 at i think age 52 he had not even seen a completed film of "blade runner," the first film of many and many made from his books

a guy creates that much and it just seems like even if he never scribbled another word (which was unlikely in his case, as he appears to have been a compulsive writer, writing thousands of pages about his metaphysical experiences when not writing novels and stories) he deserves to see how the world ultimately came around to enjoying his particular viewpoint

novelists are often at their best in their middle age or even early old age and i would have liked to have seen him enjoy the fruits of his earlier creations instead of the poverty he mostly endured and i would have liked to see what he dreamed up next

david foster wallace was even younger when he died, however, as he died a suicide, it's hard for me to say what the right thing is to do, if i could grant him another 30 years of life i would want him to be happier and to know that he was appreciated, i would not want to bring him back just to suffer

with pkd, i'm pretty sure that he might have acted badly from time to time but he would have LOVED the whole hollywood/fame thing

[bluedigger]

18. Alexander the Great

That would reshuffle the deck.

[WolverineDG]

21. !!!!!!

[NewJeffCT]

33. damn right on that

He died at what, 31? If he had another 30 years, he could have conquered Europe or Asia or maybe even both.

[femmocrat]

19. John Kennedy, Jr.

He might have followed in the footsteps of his father and uncles. But we will never know.

[GoCubsGo]

67. And, his baby brother, Patrick.

He died at two days old in 1963. I'd hope he would get more than 30-40 years, however.

[nytemare]

20. Carl Sagan

We all could have benefited from another 30-40 years of turtlneck-clad inspiration.

[a2liberal]

22. I'm surprised nobody's said FDR

First guy that popped into mind. He was still pushing us toward the right path and still had a lot left to accomplish with the economic bill of rights, etc. His early death I think left us significantly worse off (versus what might have been).

(sorry if this is too serious a reply for Lounge... I'm not a regular here...)

[applegrove]

26. No. This is the Lounge - relax and reply in any whichway you want!!

[quakerboy]

23. How about Huey Long

Or Malcolm X.

MLK, would be an obvious one. I passed it by due to the fear that if he had been around longer, at some point he would have become too familiar, and that the impact he had might even have been lessened. I don't know.

JFK seems more likely. Looking back i wonder how much damage the assassinations did to our country. It might have been a completely different world. Or maybe they would have been assimilated to a greater or lesser extent, and been remembered just the same as every president after.

I'm not sure what would happen with Huey Long. He seemed to have built a power base that would have likely changed the whole nation eventually. Imagine Alabama as the working power base of a socialist movement, in our current country, either as a third party or as an actually leftist Democratic party.

And by what I read, Malcolm X had changed as a person. I really wonder where he would have gone given more time.

[libodem]

24. Gram Parsons

Great singer, songwriter.

[lovemydog]

25. Buddy Holly

[Tikki]

40. First name that came to me and, also, Ritchie Valens...

I wonder what Ritchie could have stood for in the Hispanic community if he had lived.
All who died that night...a huge, huge loss.


Tikki

[lovemydog]

49. Yes, Richie and Buddy

were young and on top of their game. Thank goodness they were recorded so we can continue enjoying their music.

[Tabasco_Dave]

27. Frank Zappa

I'd love to hear his opinions about the music industry and politics.

[Rochester]

28. John Lennon

[SCantiGOP]

39. I looked to see if anyone said Lennon

I really think he might could have been the force to consolidate the anti-war sentiment before the Iraq war.

[AsahinaKimi]

29. Shintaro Katsu

What a great actor!

[KBlagburn]

30. Lincoln and Elvis

[UnrepentantLiberal]

70. Elvis?

[DFW]

31. Paul Tsongas

Senator from Massachusetts

[Ineeda]

32. Paul Wellstone

[raccoon]

34. FDR. Or maybe Lincoln. nt

[mucifer]

75. Wow yeah would everything be the same if Lincoln served his full second term and not andrew johnson.

[HopeHoops]

35. Frank Zappa

[hifiguy]

36. RFK, hands down.

How different the country would have been.

[treestar]

37. Jane Austen

I would have loved to read her later novels and the finished version of the one she didn't complete.

[HeiressofBickworth]

54. Thanks for suggesting Jane Austen

I've read all her books (except the incomplete one). She had much more to offer and died before she had the opportunity to do more.

[hamsterjill]

41. Randy Pausch or Mattie Stepanek

Randy showed people how to die gracefully. I would have loved to have seen more of how he lived.

Mattie Stepanek was simply amazing at such a young age. I would have loved to have seen what he could have contributed to the world as he grew older.

[semillama]

42. Jimi Hendrix, no question. n/t

[Bake]

43. George Harrison.

Gone far too soon.



Bake

[Hell Hath No Fury]

44. River Phoenix.

He was way to0 young when he died, and really just getting started. He was such an incredible talent and his death broke my heart.

[mysuzuki2]

45. me

[shanti]

46. Bob Marley

comes to mind...

[jobycom]

47. Hank Williams. Maybe he could have taught his kid something. nt

[Morning Dew]

48. Methuselah

Think of how much he could have accomplished with an extra 30 years.


Nah.




Jerry Garcia.

[Brother Buzz]

50. Will Rogers

[Burma Jones]

51. I'll throw Heath Ledger in the mix........

[sarge43]

73. Yes

He was evolving into a great actor.

[we can do it]

52. Freddie Murcury, JKF and RFK

[denbot]

53. Albert Einstien

If he lived, I wonder what he would have made of super string theory, dark matter, and his instincts regarding the cosmological constant.

[Ikonoklast]

55. Einstein said that the cosmological constant was the biggest mistake of his life

but that he just might have been wrong about him being wrong.

Funny that he just might have been correct all these years, but for the wrong reasons, sort of.

[Bennyboy]

56. Frank Zappa....

More than anything we need Frank to make sense of what is going on nowadays.

[Odin2005]

57. My list, chronological order:

Alexander the Great
How would he have ruled his empire? And would it survive his death?

Julius Caesar
What if he were never assassinated and went on to whip the Parthians?

Mozart
What would his later works have been like?

V. I. Lenin
Perhaps no Stalin and a less Totalitarian USSR?

Floyd Olson (Gov. of MN in the early 30s)
He died of cancer at the height of his glory as a radical reformer.

RFK
I think he would have beaten Nixon.

MLK jr
No explanation needed here.

John Lennon
Way too young.

Carl Sagan
He would have loved all the exoplanet discoveries.

[hifiguy]

62. That is a great list, Odin!

[Odin2005]

69. Thanks!

[sarge43]

74. Second that on Sagan

We could use his sanity right now

[sammytko]

59. Marvin Gaye

[LeftishBrit]

60. While there are many possibilities, if I'm going to be parochial and selfish..

I would choose the late Labour Party leader John Smith. If he had become Prime Minister instead of Blair, I think things would be very different.

[JoePhilly]

65. Can I take them from Rush???

[GoCubsGo]

66. Roberto Clemente and Princess Diana

I wish she could see how decent her sons grew up to be, and what a lovely daughter-in-law she has. I hope someone else will save Bruce Lee, Anne Frank, Jerry Garcia, and John Candy.

[MrSlayer]

68. Paul Wellstone.

He went too soon.

[kaitcat]

71. Natasha Richardson

and Princess Diana

[Manifestor_of_Light]

72. Several people.

Mozart, 34

Schubert, 31

Mendelssohn, 38

Chopin, 39

Bizet, 36

Lennon, 40

Jacqueline du Pre, 42, but disabled by MS. She was only famous and performing for less than ten years. I was lucky enough to see her perform the Elgar Cello Concerto live. She was the greatest cellist of the 20th century, if not of all time.

and John F. Kennedy Jr. , 38

JFK Jr. wanted to go to Hollywood and be a leading man. But Jackie wouldn't let him. They said he had his daddy's charisma but didn't know what to do with it. He would have been the handsomest leading man ever!!