RE: If you could have lunch with anyone in history, living or dead, who would it be?
Why not Jesus?
You might not have noticed but Jesus was mentioned first in the posters initial reply but I thought of this myself. I have come to the conclusion that having received our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus in Holy Communion yesterday (just around noon incidentally) and I already have a very close personal (dare I say intimate, lest it be misinterpreted in the butchered common lexicon of the day) relationship with Our Lord.
My choice would be my Father, he's been gone since 1979, he died suddenly of an aortic embolism while we were returning from a two week camping vacation in the Colorado Rockies. Looking back those last two weeks were a gift and we had left nothing unfinished but he was my best friend and I still miss him.