The Blog Mattress. Barry Crimmins sends word that the sublime Charles Laquidara, the legendary disc jockey for the old WBCN Radio who's now living in Hawaii, has started his own weblog. Lots of antiwar stuff, as you would expect from Charles. He's also posted some great cartoons and pictures -- check out the prices at Tom's Shell.

Barry himself has posted a righteous rant about his recent unsuccessful effort to write and read a commentary for On Point, an NPR-distributed talk show emanating from WBUR Radio (90.9 FM) in Boston. They invited him, I should point out, but his observations about the burgeoning 2004 presidential field were obviously too caustic for a segment that the show likes to keep lite and cheery. Crimmins writes:

Two years into the court-appointed Bush administration's destruction of our way of life and the first call I received from NPR was a request to belittle Democrats. Ostensibly they wanted me to make fun of the fact that the field of candidates had grown very quickly in recent weeks. That's right; NPR was soliciting me to satirize democracy for showing signs of vibrancy. And so this young producer tried to steer me that way. She started by mentioning the size of the Democratic field and then asked, "Do you think any of them has the stature to take on George W. Bush?"

I said, "My dog Lloyd has the stature to take on Bush." But then I allowed, "Of course, I raised him myself."

Obviously Media Log will be happy to post a response from WBUR.