It's time to really limit sports on Page 1

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Why didn't The Record list available highway toll discounts or ask North Jersey drivers for reaction to the big toll increases?

One look at The Record today and you know the male editors haven't resolved to end congratulatory, locker-room-like ass-slapping in the news meeting or limit sports on Page 1.


This photo isn't even celebrating a victory in a championship game. The Giants made it into "the playoffs." Who the F cares? Is that the biggest "news" interim Editor Douglas Clancy had for A-1 today? 


Are readers supposed to live Clancy's hangover? It's sad to see he is relying on the same male-bonding A-1 sports coverage as his clueless predecessor did.


Driving us crazy


Now, take a look at the Page 1 story on the reaction of out-of-state drivers to the "ridiculous" New Year's Day toll hikes on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway.


Did I miss the story with reaction from North Jersey drivers? And why does today's story bury the role of Governor Christie in the 53% turnpike and 50% parkway toll increases?


It seems the GOP bully is so determined not "to raise taxes" -- including the low gasoline tax to fund road and mass-transit improvements -- he grabbed $1.25 billion in turnpike authority funds intended for new Hudson River rail tunnels.


Christie killed the project, but not the toll hikes that were to help pay for the tunnels. 


Even today's editorial finally calls on Christie to raise the gas tax as a stable source of funding for the state Transportation Trust Fund (A-11). It took only two years for Editorial Page Editor Alfred E. Doblin to get behind the idea.


Please stay home


Maybe tolls on out-of-staters should have been raised 100%. All they do is spread their jaundiced view of the state, as seen from the turnpike -- "It's one big oil refinery" -- or crack the endless joke, "What exit do you live near?"


Hey, George Ward of Ellicott City, Md., and all the other belly aching, out-of-state drivers quoted today, why don't you "go around" the Garden State, if you don't like Christie's higher tolls? LOL.


The A-1 coverage Friday, Saturday and today also fails to list off-peak discounts and other discounts for seniors and hybrid-car owners that could make the toll hikes easier to swallow.


Another long front-page story -- on cellphone spying by "abusers," "stalkers" and jealous spouses -- seems pretty limited, so why did Clancy put it outside today?


Another big boo-boo


Editor Deirdre Sykes' assignment desk and Editor Liz Houlton's news copy desk are starting off the new year by failing to catch and correct another  embarrassing error -- this one in the name of a North Jersey woman who had the first-born baby in Bergen and Passaic counties (L-1).


Is she "Melida Orbe," which appears twice in the story and once in the photo caption, or "Melinda Orbe," which also appears in the story? She and her boyfrend named their baby, "Dilan," but that's likely their misspelling, not the paper's.


This despite what once was drummed into every reporter's head time and again: make sure you spell names correctly.


Smaller is better


Today's Local section seems to be filled mostly with small-town news, including the 2011 "Citizen of the Year" in Harrington Park, where Sykes lives, but there is nothing from Hackensack, Englewood, Teaneck or other large communities.


Yet there are three stories from North Arlington.


Stomach turning


In keeping with Better Living's emphasis on unhealthy food and the restaurant reviewer's obsession with dessert, today's Shopping Corner feature on F-1 is wasted on just what every home cook needs -- a "molecular cuisine kit."


Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung says "you can impress your friends by making lollipops with foie gras."


Suck on this, Ung.