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| Turkish coffee is ready to drink when it comes to the table. |
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
Was today's upbeat editorial on the "Year of Christie" written by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin -- The Record's chief apologist for Governor Christie?
The Woodland Park daily is so eager to praise Christie no one noticed the huge typo on the size of the state budget. It's $29.4 billion, not the $29.4 million that appears on Page A-22. How sloppy can you get?
Doblin is the only Editorial Page editor I've ever heard of whose editorials represent the paper's official position on important issues, but who then turns around and writes opinion columns, most of which seem to be in awe of the governor.
It's laughable how many references this popinjay makes to Hollywood movies in his columns and editorials.
Today, he was so eager to avoid any mention of how Christie balanced the state budget on the backs of the middle and working classes -- from poor schoolchildren to women to mass transit users -- he apparently deliberately low-balled the size of the budget, using "millions" instead of "billions" in the we-love-the-Republican-bully editorial.
Let's see if this major error is corrected. Production Editor Liz Houlton usually doesn't bother correcting all the screw-ups by her news copy editors and page proofers. She thinks readers are too stupid to notice all the mistakes in the paper.
World focus
On the last day of 2010, The Record's front page mainly focuses on events outside North Jersey -- in another slap-in-the face to readers in Bergen, Passaic and Morris counties.
The lead stories today and Thursday reveal how well the Christie administration has managed the news media. Just on Wednesday, a non-profit group that pushed the Republican governor's legislative agenda released its donor list, showing how companies and others who do business with the state circumvented the pay-to-play ban.
Editor Francis Scandale ran a huge picture of Times Square getting ready for New Year's Eve, even though the poor cleanup from the blizzard that ended Monday remains evident in Hackensack and many other towns in North Jersey.
No local news
Was the biggest event in North Jersey on Thursday a non-fatal accident on Route 80 east -- shown in a huge photo on L-1 today? And is that a new style -- with the photo over line flush right and the bare-bones caption flush left?
If all head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes can come up with to fill L-1 is that accident and the approval of variances in Lyndhurst, she's not doing her job. But she made sure to get a story on the police chief retiring in her small town on L-3 today, even though there is no Hackensack, Englewood or Teaneck news or anything else from a lot of other towns.
You'll have to pick up the weekly Hackensack Chronicle for a report on the $1.5 million the city has spent on legal fees in connection with lawsuits against indicted Police Chief Ken Zisa and salaries for officers who were suspended after Zisa charged them administratively.
Chinese lesson
Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung devotes far more text today to "the story" of Cheng Du 23 in Wayne, the owner and the chef than she does to the dishes she sampled -- now severely limited by penny pinching Features Director Barbara Jaeger.
Ung doesn't recommend this three-star restaurant (Excellent), if you're "looking for a more formal atmosphere." Would that be a restaurant where you have to wear formal wear? Hasn't she ever heard of a multi-course Chinese banquet? Isn't that formal?
Next to her review in the Better Living centerfold today is a mini-review of Bahama Breeze, a faux-Caribbean restaurant in Wayne that she rated two stars (Good).
The review, published Sept. 3, 2009, reports she was served "mushy" pasta, raw or undercooked scallops three times, as the staff apologized profusely; "scorched" shrimp and sweet potatoes she enjoyed more than the desserts she sampled. But by giving the restaurant two stars, she has cheapened her ratings for all restaurants that follow.
Jeff Page, the free lancer who writes the renamed Eating Out for Under $50 feature, doesn't even mention if the bread served at Hummus Elite, an Israeli restaurant in Englewood, is any good. He calls it a "kosher Mediterranean" restaurant.
In his review, he cautions readers not to stir the Turkish coffee. Mr. Page, that coffee is brewed with sugar, so no stirring is necessary.
You'll need strong coffee to get through today's paper. Don't expect anything to change in the new year. Lazy editors and absentee owners add up to bad journalism 365 days a year.
Nyah, million, billion, in a headline that would be a big typo, but newspapers and radio stations make that mistake all the time. Sure a good copy desk would have caught it and the fact it made Christie to look a little better, welll, I wouldn't make a big issue of it. But about that Turkish coffee, I certainly would think twice before stirring it, it looks like Jimmy Hoffa coule be buried in it. Besides, can't you order it without sugar?
ReplyDeleteNo one drinks Turkish coffee without sugar.
ReplyDeleteMaybe not huge in size, but huge in significance, and goes far in showing you how no one at The Wretched cares anymore.
If you judge your mistakes by how many other people make them, you're already lost.
I'm not judging my mistakes, I've caught way more million/billion deals than I've missed. I'm just saying it's a common error. And what about milk? Don't the Turks put any cream in their mud...I mean coffee? Jeez, if they used their coffee to build houses, so many of them wouldn't collapse whenever they have an earthquake.
ReplyDeleteMilk or cream in Turkish coffee? Absolutely not. But after you finish a cup, turn it over and let the "mud" of the grinds fall onto the small saucer. Then, have someone read what it says about your future.
ReplyDeleteTurkish coffee is made by boiling water, adding the coffee, which has been ground into a powder, called a Turkish grind; and later the sugar, in the amount indicated by the customer.
"Mazboot" (phonetic spelling) is Arabic for "medium sweet." The word mazboot is also used in a general context to indicate agreement and acceptance.
A anonymous comment posted on your JAN 22 2013 story asked you not to post the comment why did you do so?
ReplyDeleteI thought it was of compelling public interest and relevant to the post. I, as the editor of the blog, decide what comments get published and what comments are withheld.
ReplyDeleteYou should put a post on Judge Jeanine Pirro Facebook page to read Eye on the Record so she can learn about the family that is suing her. Maybe she will fight back on her Fox TV show once she gets the information. Worth a shot,for only taken 1 minute out of your time.Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion.
Delete