No end to hard-luck stories on Page 1

With the garbage dumps filling up, much of Bergen County's refuse is ending up in The Record of Woodland Park.

The reluctant savior

That line over a photo on Page 1 of The Record today looked inviting.

But long-suffering readers muttered, "Oh, shit!" when they realized it was the third straight day of blanket coverage in the hard-luck saga of Stanley Kowalski, the 82-year-old homeless man who almost blew himself up on Feb. 28.

Now, it is Kowalski's rescuer, Bill Smith, whose life is laid bare by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes in another desperate attempt to sell newspapers.

Staff Writer Stephanie Akin, who has neglected her Hackensack and Maywood beat, calls Smith "the second character in a real-life drama that captivated the region." 

The "nether regions" would be more like it.

Only one of many victims

With all due respect to Smith, who takes care of the fish at Reef Encounter in Hackensack, thousands of other North Jerseyans who struggle economically have been ignored by Sykes and her lazy, incompetent assignment-desk minions.

Sykes continues to victimize readers in Hackensack and elsewhere who search the paper in vain for meaningful news of their communities -- while burdening them with sensationalism and hype that insults their intelligence.

Shoddy reporting

The lead A-1 story today -- about a potential $200 million hole in Governor Christie's budget -- comes only 11 days after Sykes hoodwinked Editor Marty Gottlieb into running a rosy story on affordable housing in Bergen County.

The story, which also ran in the lead position, didn't even report that Christie might have overstepped his authority when he dismantled the Council on Affordable housing and that he could be reversed by an appeals court, which is what happened.

Rare mass-transit column

On the front of Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski has awakened from his slumber, stupor, early Alzheimer's, coma -- or whatever you want to call his endless repetition about drivers and driving -- and written about a new mass-transit option in Bergen County.

Law & Order stories appear on every page of Local today, and readers who were put to sleep by Page 1 were jolted awake by the L-6 story on jury deliberations in the Dharun Ravi trial in New Brunswick.

Why didn't production Editor Liz Houlton package the jury deliberations story with the A-1 story on a possible update of the bias law under which Ravi is being tried and run it on A-10, the continuation page?

You can't get much sloppier than that.

NPR reported at noon today that Ravi was convicted of bias intimidation against Tyler Clementi of Ridgewood, his college roommate, who jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.

Shitting bricks

In Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung tells us a lot about Brick Lane Curry House in Ridgewood except whether the chicken and lamb served at the pricey Indian place are naturally raised.

Just a week ago, in the review 0f Rosario's Trattoria in Midland Park , she took her mind off dessert long enough to note the chicken was antibiotic-free and also quote the owner as saying he served naturally raised veal.

You can't get much sloppier than that.