Image by quite peculiar via FlickrThe jock-itching, ass-slapping editors of The Record of Woodland Park may think a former baseball player's substance-abuse problems are top-of-the-front-page news today, but I'm sure a majority of long-suffering readers see it as a slap in the face.
"Burglary spree hits Asian shops" is the headline over the biggest element on Page 1 today -- complete with a map and three photos. Interesting, but so what? The reporter lets the A-1 play go to her head and actually quotes a professor of criminal justice on why the suspects are hitting cash businesses. Maybe it's just payback for all the lousy takeout they've eaten (photo).
The lazy, incompetent editors could have fashioned a great front page from the story at the bottom of A-1 -- Governor Christie appears to have dropped his ill-advised plan to dismantle Bergen County blue laws -- and a second story on the front of Local about the governor campaigning for a teacher pay freeze in Ramsey.
After all, in about two months, Christie has become the official many of us love to hate.
On L-1, Columnist Mike Kelly has another ridiculous column, this one on a tree doctor who saved a millionaire's trees in Alpine. Hey, Mike, you're the one who needs a doctor. Another day of "every day" education coverage passes without word of cuts facing Hackensack schools.
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I've gotta disagree with you on the Dwight Gooden thing. He's one of those figures who transcends the realm of sports and whose well chronicled substance abuse problems -- this time with a kid in the back seat -- gets people talking in health club locker rooms, at diner counters and over backyard fences. And elicits piles of the kind of moronic reader comments the Scandales and Burgoses of this world love to see, because it shows people are at least reading the paper.
ReplyDeleteI thought Kelly's column was the feel-good story of the decade, at least if you're a tree, 73 year old who oughtta retire rescues 30 year old spruces. My only quibble with the piece was that he didn't mention the cost differential between an Alpine chainsaw massacre and the Forest Rescue Service. Could a housewife in Clifton, for example, have afforded to replant a tree with its roots intact? Only the Savvy Shopper knows for sure.
Thanks for your fresh perspective, Aaron.
ReplyDeleteSo what? Well, 60 unsolved burglaries by the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office is somewhat troubling to me.
ReplyDeleteThen you probably own one of those MSG pits. Seriously, I don't think the prosecutor is involved; probably just local police departments, many of which are incompetent and couldn't solve a crime on the doorstep of police HQ.
ReplyDeleteSomebody needs a hug.
ReplyDeleteMore than one.
ReplyDeletePersonally I'm appalled by the fact that the police have done little or nothing to investigate and solve these crimes. How difficult would a little surveillance be? And a certain newspaper is surely asleep at the wheel, having to wait for an announcement or a press release before mentioning this crime spree for the first time in what, a year or two? I seem to remember there was an article when the total was up to five or six in a few days.
ReplyDeleteThese Chinese food joints may use a little MSG, but their staffs are the hardest damn working people in North Jersey, often putting in hours from 10 in the morning until 11 at night, six days a week, although the teenagers do seem to be given time off to go to school if they wish to attend, and I've seen them doing homework during slow periods.
The paper should be as ashamed as the police. And it's not like the police are incompetent, if these were white, middle class restaurants or even pizza parlors they cops would be all over it and would have it solved in a nonce.
Yes. Many of the workers are illegal immigrants, and probably live in Queens, shuttling back and forth daily. They are paying off the money they were charged by smugglers.
ReplyDelete