KATHY F. at What Do I Know? passed along her virus to me, the main symptoms of which are the uncontrollable desire to name five people, living or dead, that I would like to see blogging.

1. Since both Kathy F. and Kathy from New Jersey mentioned Jesus, I will say Moses. I'd love to read his thoughts about what it feels like to be chosen by God to lead your people to freedom when you feel like you can't do anything right, and you're a stutterer, to boot. I imagine that Moses must have felt quite lonely and alone at times, too -- being caught between God's wrath and the Israelites' whining and complaining. How did he cope?
2. Next would be Rabbi Hillel. He lived roughly at the time of Jesus; and he was of the school of thought that said living the spirit of the law was more important than living the letter of the law. I would give a lot to read the blog entry he wrote after his meeting with the skeptic who told Hillel he would become a follower of the Torah if Hillel could teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel stood on one foot and replied, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the entire Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it."
3. Third, Sally Hemings. How did she feel about her sexual relationship with Thomas Jefferson? What did she feel about him? If she had had a blog back then, and had written down her thoughts on the concept of "choosing" to be in a relationship that was inherently coercive, what would she have said? If she had had the opportunity to read the Bill of Rights, what would have been her thoughts on those noble freedoms, given that they did not apply to her? I wish I knew.
4. Fourth, Leo Frank, who was falsely accused of murdering a 13-year-old white girl and was lynched by a white mob in Georgia in 1913, after a judge commuted his sentence. He was the only Jew ever to be lynched in American history. I think it's a given that anything this man would have written in his blog concerning the events following Mary Phagan's death would have been fascinating and deeply moving.
5. And fifth, Elizabeth Montgomery -- an actress I greatly admired both for her acting ability, the charm and warmth she projected on camera, and her political activism. She narrated the film "Panama Deception," which documented the effects of the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama on the people of that country; and she publically supported co-star Dick Sargent when he came out as being gay. If she had been writing a blog during the years she starred on Bewitched, I would have eaten it up: I was addicted to that show.

I now pass this respiratory infection on to Nellie at Dancing with Derrida, Elayne Riggs, Shakespeare's Sister, and Mahablog. May you all cough productively!