Someone should detain, starve Christie

This is how thick The Record was when I pulled it out of the plastic bag today.

This is what is left after I recycled Sports, advertising sections and sales fliers.

The worsening obesity epidemic in New Jersey and the poor role model we're stuck with in Governor Christie have never made Page 1 news in The Record,  a daily that employs a couple of obese local-news editors who bury their heads in their ample behinds.

But a few days ago, Editor Marty Gottlieb put the theft of an English bulldog puppy on the front page, and today, he gave the same treatment to the arrest of a couple who are charged with stealing the overpriced dog and neglecting it so much, it lost 1.5 pounds of its original 5 pounds.

Imagine if Christie lost 150 pounds of his, what, 350 or 400 pounds?

Is he healthy?

In view of Christie's increasing weight, is he really healthy enough for a second term or, God forbid, the presidency? 

Christie figures in another story today, an A-3 explanation of why he vetoed the state's health insurance exchange bill and rejected federal money to set up the marketplace.

The GOP bully is quoted as saying he was not "willing to buy a pig in poke."

Given his size, the image of a hog is a poor one, especially in view of how voters bought "a pig in a poke" in the form of all the campaign promises he made and broke, especially his pledge to lower local property taxes.

Pizza obsession

In The Record on Friday, a story reported Christie ended his appearance on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" by agreeing with the host to meet "over pizza," one of the foods that is making the state's chief executive even fatter (A-3).

In a letter to the editor about obesity, Jenna Shotmeyer of Franklin Lakes argues it is "the responsibility of the individual to eat what he or she wants, not the government" (A-22 on Friday).

She doesn't mention Christie, who put New Jersey in a shameful 48th place in the national school breakfast program for poor children and made the state ineligible for $22.6 million in addtional federal funding.

Remember the billions in federal transportation aid Christie lost when he killed the Hudson River rail tunnels, throwing mass transit into a crisis?  

Fender benders

There is so little municipal news today, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, had to fill out their section with two photos -- a non-fatal accident in Paterson (L-1) and the latest chapter in utility pole news (L-6).

Readers who are trying to figure out just when a fatal head-on collision occurred on the New Jersey Turnpike got no help from Production Editor Liz Houlton and her blind copy editors (L-1).

The lead paragraph reports two people were killed "early Friday," but the third paragraph says troopers "came upon the crash while responding to a report made near 12:30 p.m."

Should that be 12:30 a.m.?

Pal Park and Leonia

On Friday's front page, a silly sports column on the unified Palisades Park and Leonia high school football teams only reminds readers the editors still haven't explained why Palisades Park police had to help Leonia chase and kill a robbery suspect on Nov. 25?

Maybe the two police departments should be merged to get rid of one of the $200,000-plus police chiefs. 

My pick is Leonia's chief, Jay Ziegler, who repeately refused to release the name of the Leonia cop involved in the death of the mentally ill suspect, Rickey McFadden. 

3rd cop identified 

Gottlieb put the high school football story outside, but relegated to L-1 a story that finally identifies the Leonia cop as Sgt. Scott Tamagny, who filed a report purportedly explaining his use of deadly force against a suspect armed only with a knife.

The story also reports that Rosemary Arnold, the McFadden family attorney, lashed out "following a critical Facebook post" on the Leonia Police Department's official page, and criticized Ziegler for portraying cops -- not the dead man and his survivors -- as the victims.

More minor crashes

Sykes and Sforza also used photos of two minor accidents as filler in Friday's Local news section (L-1 and L-3).

For some inexplicable reason, a big part of L-3 on Friday was devoted to a 1987 march pleading "for the freedom of Soviet Jewry," written by Tenafly reporter Deena Yellin.

Breaking readers

Equally puzzling is a Road Warrior column on the obscure Breakneck Road in Bergen County, rehashing a 2006 accident (L-1 on Friday).

Meanwhile, a concerned reader sent another e-mail to management, complaining about significant errors in the previous Road Warrior column about E-ZPass discounts for drivers of hybrid cars.

That column, on Wednesday, provided incomplete and inaccurate information about the Green Pass program, including which cars qualify for the discounts, according to the reader.

Staff Writer John Cichowski's column also erred in discussing why some stations charge higher gasoline prices for credit-card customers.

Cichowski wrote:

"Retailers say profit margins on gas are very low and credit-card companies charge 5 percent or more in interest and fees."

The concerned reader wrote:

"CORRECT FACTS -- Credit card companies do NOT charge interest to gas stations.  The increased cost for credit prices for gas stations is because credit card companies charge gas stations relatively high fees for swiping credit cards to pay for gas. 

"Credit card industry fees are based on fixed fees, plus percentages, which are normally somewhere between 2-3%. depending on the credit card company, of the total purchase price." 

Feeding her boredom

In Friday's Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung shows how bored she is with eating out on the newspaper's dime (actually a few hundred dollars a week, I would guess).

Speaking of "service" at the Ho-Ho-Kus Inn and Tavern, she sniffs, "Servers vary when it comes to authority."

What does that mean?

Under "value," she lists the prices of appetizers and entrees, but doesn't say whether they are justified. 

The restaurant isn't "appropriate for ... anyone looking for groundbreaking cuisine,"  she notes, but fails to give points to the chef for being one of the few who serves a "grass-fed" steak, and for non-meat eaters, two great seafood dishes.

The food looks and sounds terrific, but she was disappointed with the desserts and gave the chef less than 3 stars.

What about salads and vegetables? Why no mention of those?

Can Ung be more out of touch with readers?