Christie gives us another bowel movement

Newark wasn't mentioned among cities where the rate of childhood obesity has fallen. This is the city's official seal. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bring together an obese governor who is in denial about his unhealthy eating habits and a veteran newswoman and celebrity watcher who appears to have lost it, and what do you get?

You get the silly exchange between interviewer Barbara Walters and Governor Christie published on A-1 and A-3 of The Record today:

"The governor said the idea that his weight would make him an ineffective president was 'ridiculous.'"

From the in-your-face Christie, this is just another bowel movement.

Walters apparently was just out for a sound bite, judging from her poorly researched question.

Health, weight problems

She didn't mention the apparent asthma attack that put him in the hospital a couple of summers ago nor that he is driven short distances just about everybody else would walk.

Nor did she point out how Newark was conspicuously absent in a news report three days ago on lower rates of childhood obesity in some cities.

Nearly 3 years after Christie took office, I have yet to see a story in The Record or any other New Jersey newspaper on whether Christie is a good role model during the obesity epidemic or even what the state is doing to fight overeating in children. 

Bathroom humor

Did you see Christie last week on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"?

He was hunched forward on his chair, as if he was trying to hide his tremendous stomach or straining to eliminate his last gargantuan meal.

At the Sandy relief concert on Wednesday night, Christie was shown standing, fearing the audience would see how he takes up two seats.  

Of course, New Jersey residents familiar with his politics know he'd make a terrible president because he would fight to the death to hold onto tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, just as he has done in the Garden State.

Take that, Sandy

Most of Page 1 today was taken up by a report on "12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief."

Get a load of that lame headline from Production Editor Liz Houlton's comatose copy editors, who settle for a play on words that defies reality:

Notes of optimism   

What 'optimism'?

And did readers really need to learn in the 3rd paragraph that the New York apartment of Rolling Stone Mick Jagger was flooded?

Unlike most people displaced by Sandy, Jagger likely has a dozen homes scattered around the world he can live in.

Story can't deliver

Five reporters and an unknown number of editors weighed in on the United Parcel Service data center in Paramus, and still were unable to pin down whether it is moving to Woodland Park (A-1).

This is the second day in a row Editor Marty Gottlieb ran this story on Page 1, and the only thing he accomplished is rasing questions in readers minds on why The Record hasn't said as much about its own move to the former West Paterson.

Out of her element

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes has Staff Writer Evonne Coutros covering Teaneck and Bogota, even though Coutros normally is assigned to Ridgewood and Glen Rock.

On Wednesday, Coutros reported on a Bogota couple who are paying fines for violating property maintenance regulations, but the couple's address didn't appear in the story.

Today, on the Local front, Coutros says Louie's Charcoal Pit is the latest business to close on Teaneck's Cedar Lane.

In recent years, Sykes has almost completely ignored the health of downtown business districts in Teaneck, Englewood and Hackensack, which hasn't  recovered from the loss of hundreds of Record employees eating and shopping on Main Street. 

Missing in action

I've read the Louie's Charcoal Pit story and can't find the year it opened, except for this phrase -- "a fixture since the early 1960s" -- even though the owner is quoted elsewhere in the piece.

Nor does the story discuss the growing Orthodox Jewish population and all the kosher restaurants competing with the diner.  

Finally, is the food any good? Maybe, Louie's isn't what it used to be, and that sealed its fate.

I can't find anything about that in the story.

Did Sykes handle this full-of-holes story or did she entrust it to her deputy, Dan Sforza?

More great work from Deirdre and Dan.