Blogging may well be the future of journalism, be that blogging by professional journalists or the so-called citizen journalists. But it does have its dark and silly sides.

The cartoon Doonesbury has a riff going on blogging by mainstream journalists. In the Sunday paper, the reporter character is teased for blogging “Has Clinton peaked? Only time will tell.” The reporter snarls: It’s a rough draft!”

Closer to home, there has been a commenter banned from many of our blogs. Today, someone sent a long, rambling letter to the editor about the commenter, warning us to keep him off our pages. The letter (which we never intended to publish) was signed Mr. Charles Winchester III.

Our astute features editor, Ken Paulman, e-mailed me back with an Internet link to Mr. Charles Winchester III.

Major Charles Emerson Winchester III is a fictional character, a principal on the television series, M*A*S*H, played by David Ogden Stiers.