Gary Goldhammer –author and storyteller.

Yom Kippur is a time for reflection, for fasting, and most importantly, for apologizing. As tradition goes, we must apologize to anyone whom we have wronged or disappointed, or we won’t get our names inscribed in the “Book of Life.”

This has always fascinated me — I mean, as if walking around with guilt all the time wasn’t bad enough. Now if we don’t feel guilty and apologize for every little thing, we die. Happy New Year, my ass.

Nevertheless, I feel compelled to apologize, just in case. So here are some of my apologies for the past year — if I missed you, let me know in a comment and I’ll send you a personal note and maybe a nice brisket.

(Oh, and a private shout out to my friends Steve Rubel, Shel Israel and Shel Holtz: L’Shana Tova, guys!)

• I’m sorry for making fun of Kami Huyse and the whole APR thing. Remember, I kid because I love – and because I know Kami can take it, unlike some other bloggers.

• I’m sorry I gave credit to Bill O’Reilly for at one time being a credible journalist. I now believe he was merely suffering from temporary sanity.

• I’m sorry to Dean Baquet, Los Angeles Times editor, for not reading The Times as much as I used to. The Tribune Company is a tank and Baquet is standing in front of it, refusing to back down and layoff more reporters. Dean, you’re a mench.

• I’m sorry I’m not on Osama Bin Laden’s hit list. I’m obviously not doing enough in the war on terror.

• I’m sorry that I have yet to read Naked Conversations. Whenever I try, I immediately picture Shel Israel naked and I pass out. Or have a stroke, I can’t tell.

• I’m sorry to my business partner, Linda Zimmer, for getting lost while she took me shopping in Second Life. Even my avatar has no sense of direction – but at least he’s now well dressed.

• I’m sorry for not acknowledging John Wagner, Scott Baradell, Andrea Weckerle, Leonard Witt, Tom Murphy, Constantin Basturea or Linda more often in posts or comments. They are consistently good, which is difficult at best, especially when you still have a day job.

• I’m sorry for sometimes putting the words “Geraldo” and “journalist” in the same sentence. Those two words don’t belong in the same hemisphere.

• I’m sorry to my local PRSA chapter (Orange County, CA) for continuing to push social media and urging them to use today’s communications tools – tools like the Internet, for example.

• I’m sorry for writing far too many long posts. Guess I should stop.