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Thursday, October 12, 2006

KARAOKE BLOG: An Irish Redhead and the Story of the Story within the story within the story


I love a good mystery.

I found one today.
Over at Cathy's place (Cathy's Rants and Ramblin's) things are heating up. Armed with an intriguing story prompt and loads of self-effacing ramblings, this fiery redhead is ablaze with hot ideas.

Intensely personal and sometimes reading like a medical chart - hers - it is obvious how much blogging means to Cathy and how much Cathy means to those she interacts with on a daily basis.
Her blog is definitely in a medical mood.
Formerly known as 'Arthritis Rants' the sidebar link list reads like a Who's Who of ER cast members; such as Dr. Flea and Dr. Schwab as well as the now infamous
Dr. Anonymous - founder of Blogaholics Anonymous - of which Cathy is chief recorder of minutes.

After reading Cathy's informative web ring of health snippets, concerns, ranting frustrations and touching personal accounts - not to mention a hodgepodge of other topics - it's easy to understand how she landed such an ailment. But her deep dark secret pales in comparison to the charitable spirit and kindness evident in her blog world.

But back to the mystery.


Cathy concocted a scheme, threw
out some bait in the form of a challenge and drew in scads of people wanting to join the party. For a serious minded redhead, she throws one interesting soiree.
Why would fifty-five grown people with perfectly good careers and happenin' lives clamor to accept an invitation to complete a writing assignment? Flashback: English 101. Shakespeare. Annotated footnotes. Oral book reports.
Maybe we're just tired of
memes. (say it ain't so)

A large percentage are professional health care workers; nurses, doctors and just plain caring friends decided to spin a story. And in record time.
And all with the same ending sentence.

Each story, poem or essay had to end with
"An innocent victim of a lie told in silence."


Except now the lie is no longer silent.
In fact, the lie is all over the world.
The beginning.

That was Irish Redhead's invitation.
No problem. Piece of cake. Right?

Wrong.
I thought this was going to be an easy
Karaoke post. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd get so caught up in the stories I couldn't get the article finished about the stories (yet another story within the story within this story) Sorry about that. I think Cathy's rambleritis is contagious.
I'm going to link her! I may need medical advice for this from time to time.

Here are links to each of the individual stories written based on Cathy's prompt. Most of these bloggers added links to the other story writers on their own sites. I love the encouraging comments they left for each other; truly unique to the blogging craze and speaks well of Cathy's brand of blogging. It's a mad trail of fiction. See if you can follow the winding collage of lies....
Let's start with Cathy's own lovely story entitled "TheVictim."


1. Dr. Rob - Musings of a Distractable Mind - who wrote about barking dogs and flying cows
2. Daniel, from Life on Vancouver Island, wrote about the most tender of lies
3. KT wrote on love,
4. Life in Qualicum by Mary Anne RN
5. Dr. Jordan from In My Humble Opinion wrote about a sad social ill
6. Wolfbaby (Dreaming and Believing)

7. Moof from A Moof's Tale wrote Willy Nilly - literally!
8. Kim, who writes Emergiblog came up with a complete off the cuff nurse-who's-had-too-much-caffeine kinda story, complete with a hilarious picture you have to see to believe
9. A serious story called The Deafening Silence over at Ripples of Hope, written by the "difficult patient."
10. Muffin 53 takes us back to 1958 and beyond in her diary journal extraordinaire (where all good lies are told)
11. Dirty Laundry airs Sins of Omission - a clever Catholic twist on Cathy's story meme assignment
12. The Wandering Author from New England will WOW you with The Tragedy of Sionn and Maeve
13. and who woulda thunk that Who Wouda Thunk It could think this up on the fly? Apparently everyone!
14. Brian from Truth Is Freedom chose to share a unique slice of poetry, but it was what he wrote after the poem entry that reeled me in. Check it out and grab the hankies.
15. Your Cervix (yes, that's really the name of the blog) has an interesting approach (must see graphic to understand) and shares a poignant lie story, thoughtfully written full of joys and sin
16. Dr. Anonymous, that saint of a sponsor we all go to for the Internet affliction addiction we're all struggling with wrote a touching response to Cathy's challenge.
17. Ipanema broke our hearts with a beautifully written saga of an untruth and last but not least.....
18. Boomerang (a nurse blog about a nurse) wrote a moving and unpredictably real entry


Writing this article reaped great rewards for me; I found many beautiful blogs I might have missed otherwise. I am still on the trail of these stories and will post the collection on Book Meme Central as I go along. Please send me any you find that aren't included here.

Cathy is a true blue beautiful blogger.
Don't believe me?
She recently completed an exhausting
BLOGATHON with 129 comments listed! Don't miss this redhead's cyber home. It feels comfy cozy and she has a houseful of friends.
A nice place to be.

*****************************
Don't forget BLOG BLAST FOR PEACE November 7, 2006. Click here to get your PEACE GLOBE.



8 comments:

Lizza said...

Oh, wow. Her site sounds great! Thanks for the recommendation, I'll go check it out.

Anonymous said...

nice blog about our dear cathy. we all loved the writing challenge. we met new friends, found new blogs we liked, and, in general, just had some fun!

empress bee of muffin53

ipanema said...

Wow! I'm reading a review of our stories. Thank you for kind words. I'm sure Cathy will be here in a few.

Cheers!

Dr. A said...

Excellent review. I highly recommend reading Cathy. She has great music on her blog as well.

Anonymous said...

Mimi..I am humbled by your words...Thank you so much, and thank you for linking all the great stories by everyone who participated in my project. I have been most blessed by having so many good friends and readers in the blogosphere.

I am going to link back to this so that everyone who wrote a story can find you...:)

Anonymous said...

you did a wonderful review of Cathy... beatiful and touching just like she is;)!!! The writting challenge was such fun!!!

Anonymous said...

Hyeyyyyy Cathy rules the web!

AtYourCervix said...

Looks like I lagged behind in finding your post Mimi, regarding Cathy's writing challenge. It was a blast to feel like I was back in Eng Comp 101 in college, and I loved rising the occasion of such a fantastic challenge. It inspired me to start doing some writing again :-)

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