19 September 2007

Why I Love Manic Monday



Yesterday was "Manic Monday" a creation of the spectacular MO of It's A Blog Eat Blog World. Mo is a cat lover, entrepreneur of The Wren's Nest, and star every Wednesday evening of The Mo Show on blog radio.

Even if you hate "all join in the meme" assignments, you will probably like Manic Monday as much as the 35 - 40 blogs do that currently participate, with more coming on every week. The rules for Manic Monday are simple. Every Friday, Mo puts up a single word with all of it's dictionary definitions. Based on that word everyone writes a post connected by definition or association with that word. As you make the rounds, you simply don't have a clue as to what people will do. The surprises can be astounding as to where a single word can take a writer.

For instance, this Monday created posts in the following areas:

Crisp Fall air might seem a cliche, but it produced posts on hiking in Scotland, sorghum production in Georgia, and a walk in a Eucalyptus grove in California among all the geographic posts. Food would be another familiar association, so we had Rice Crispy Treats, crisp oatmeal topping, a couple of apple crisp recipes, Crispy Creme doughnuts, apple harvest, and dieting. (After all that food, you needed to diet).

There were sports figures, movie stars, singers, trumpet players, guitars and lots of You Tube samples of same. All of these came with personal stories and opinions. History had some submissions including the uniforms of the Navy, Army, and Marines, several parental remembrances both sad and joyful, teenaged angst and chemical burns to produce peeling skin. There was even one delightful and funny blog about writers block on the subject of nothing crispy to say.

The people who participate are an eclectic mix - a complete stew of the broad spectrum of humanity from the heavenly to the profane, professional writers to stay at home mom's with a computer connection to the outside world. All of them set aside any preconceptions they might have about each other in their dedication to produce an entertaining group project.

All of the above happens every week as a gift to bloggers. You don't have to come up with a post of your own. One day a week, Mo hands you the present tied with a bow of an idea, all connected by a name on a Mr. Linky chart at the bottom of Mo's submission. Add your own and then just click around the world reading what the power of imagination and one word can do.

Come join the fun.

7 comments:

Travis Cody said...

What a tremendous tribute to the power of this feature. You've captured exactly why I enjoy it every week, and have only missed it one time.

Thanks for this.

Mo and The Purries said...

Jamie, thanks for this!
I got a bit verklempt when reading it, and at the same time was proud and very moved.
Thanks, very much.

manic mo

Durward Discussion said...

verklempt is good. :-)

Claire said...

Great post Jamie :)

Mo is the glue that sticks us all together!

Linda said...

What a terrific post and wrap-up of just what Manic Monday is. I'm not a regular writer on this meme as much as I would like to be as Sundays can either be hit or miss at work where I put in 16-hour days. However, that doesn't mean I can't use other time on the weekend to put together a post (I wrote this week's on Saturday!).

I love the variety that the meme evokes in people and it's always a treat to see what angle each blogger is going to take with each week's word.

Besides, how can you not love Mo? The guy does look seriously good with a fruit basket on his head!

Schmoop said...

After all of this time, that picture of Mo is still very disturbing.

Mommy2JL said...

Great post!
I'm new to Manic Monday but I'd have to say that I truly do enjoy it as much as you do. It's fun to click around to the other blogs to see what their interpretations were.

:)