It's great to be back!

Well, I've finally reached the point where I can move on, blogwise.

When Obamanomics put the last nail in the coffin of the much-beloved Sacramento Union -- the newspaper that gave Mark Twain his start -- I lost not only my regular bi-weekly column, "Letters from Abroad", but I lost my blog, too.

Since then, quite frankly, I've been grieving. The SacUnion team was the best -- we were providing a desperately-needed conservative voice in California's State Capitol, we were giving the McClatchy hegemony a run for their (liberal) money, we were educating anyone with internet access, and maybe best of all, we were having fun.

I'd spent several decades in the Sacramento area, so most of the people associated with the SacUnion were people I knew -- some I'd worked with before, some I'd barely met. But there was a team spirit about the place. We had an objective -- to kick a little liberal butt, and serve up the truth -- and we had fun doing it.

When Jim Dutra, the editor and publisher (not to mention my favorite hero) first asked me to start a blog, I was a little leery. I wasn't sure what I'd write about on a several-times-a-week basis, and I sure as heck doubted anyone would read it. But by the time a year had passed, I'd come to love that blog. What fun! Almost every morning I'd sit down and write something, whatever was on my mind. It was usually about something going on in Israel, spliced with the latest outrage in the US.

When the Obama team removed all hope of a quick recovery from the economic devastation, the SacUnion was forced out of business. With businesses of all kinds suffering, there were few who wanted to buy advertising. With no ads, there was no income. So when that conservative Camelot closed its doors, what I missed most was the blog.

Some of you did, too -- I thank every one of you who wrote to say so. I "met" people all over the world through that blog -- some hated my guts, some respectfully disagreed, lots of people chimed in with additional insights, and a few even admitted they liked what I had to say. Whatever, the interaction was always interesting.

So here we go again -- I'm ready to blog, this time on my own.

One word about names -- surely some of you will wonder. The name of this blog is "Bagelnosher", which is a sort-of Yiddish made-up word. You all know what a bagel is -- and in Yiddish, to "nosh" is to eat, to nibble or munch. Living here in Israel, I fantasize about bagels a lot -- contrary to popular theory, they aren't so much a Jewish food as a New York one. So bagels are hard to find in Israel.

So why not? 'bagelnosher' has been my email address for many years, so now? The Bagelnosher Blog it is.

And as far as MY name is concerned, clarification about that, too. My American name is Karen. My Hebrew name is Yocheved Miriam. In the States, people call me Karen -- when Jim Dutra first proposed the idea of a column in the SacUnion, he suggested I use "Karen" because that's the name most people in California remember me by.

But when you make aliyah -- move to Israel -- it's traditional to change your name to something Hebrew. So here, I'm called Yocheved Miriam.

Whatever you call me is just fine -- I love comments, so call me whatever you like, just do it early and often, by any name.