Why is Meryl looking back?

You might have noticed that I’ve been putting up posts from my past. That’s because in April, this blog will celebrate its tenth anniversary. I’ve been blogging since before Instapundit—since before anyone in the current JBlogosphere, in fact. And this blog turned towards the subjects of Judaism and Israel as its main subjects right about the time I’m of the posts I’m republishing.

Back then, the JBlogosphere was Tal G in Jerusalem, and Israeli Guy, Imshin (Not a Fish), Gary Farber, and Allison Kaplan Sommer—and I was here before all of them. Lair Simon was a commenter at LGF when I first started blogging. Israpundit/Ted Belman started around the time of the posts I’m reprinting. The Elder of Ziyon? Pshaw, he’s just a toddler in comparison (although an extremely gifted one).

Ten years. I’ve been doing this for ten years. I can’t even begin to estimate the number of words I’ve written, or the thousands of hours I’ve spent blogging. But I do know that I’m not bored yet, and I’d like to try to get some of my old fire back. The redesign was originally planned for the Yourish.com birthday celebration, but thanks to my tech support, Jay, we have the new layout now. And as I have the time, I’ll be bringing back more posts that I’m pretty sure very few of you have read. My blogging time is more constricted lately because I’m writing fiction again. (That’s the main reason I’m so interested in the ebook revolution. A writer no longer needs to rely on the agent-publishing house route to becoming a published author.)

It’s always been about the writing for me. That’s why I started this blog, and that’s why I keep going. That, and the message. I know you can get the other side of the Israel story in dozens of places now. But none of them has my specific level of snark, and, well—I was here first.