Editors continue to diss elderly, fabricate dumpling fever

Even though the surface of Route 4 in Paramus was clear around 9:30 this morning, eastbound traffic moved sluggishly after warnings from The Record that ice would make "travel hazardous" (Local front).

On the narrow, two-lane cow track known as Passaic Avenue, the light was green, but traffic was at a standstill near Summit Avenue in Hackensack, where county officials have ignored calls for the installation of turn lanes. In North Jersey, as much as 10 inches of snow fell on Monday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The editors of The Record today are lampooning an elderly woman who inadvertently crashed her 2005 Buick LeSabre, which was found "suspended over a retaining wall at a concrete plant" in Wayne (Local front).

This time, readers don't have the same kind of photos that ran in the Local news section on Jan. 13.

Then, they could clearly see the helpless expression on a white-haired woman's face after she drove her 2009 Honda Civic "over a guardrail and retaining wall and down an embankment at a condominium complex" in Ridgewood. 

But today's story names the elderly driver, Mary Gwenn, 81, who disappeared Friday night and was discovered Saturday afternoon, having been "exposed to a life-threatening drop in body temperature" during a cold snap (L-1).

Gwenn and the unnamed driver on Jan. 13 likely mistook the accelerator for the brake pedal, a common error for elderly drivers.

Is driver retraining available for such older drivers?

Road Warrior John Cichowski has ignored that question for more than a decade.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, have run numerous stories on older drivers running into storefronts, hitting pedestrians and causing other mayhem.

But they've never run any stories on whether help is available for these drivers, who are no more addled than Cichowski himself. 

That's not surprising given how The Record virtually ignores Alzheimer's, heart disease and other illnesses suffered by older readers.

Christie in England

Staff Writer Melissa Hayes continues to hang on every word from Governor Christie, the undeclared candidate who is campaigning in England for the Republican presidential nod in 2016 (A-1).

Meanwhile, Christie is defending his "corporate-backed, three-day trip," claiming "it aims to improve the state economy" (A-6).

But campaign finance experts say Choose New Jersey, the non-profit paying for Christie and his wife, poses a potential conflict of interest "because the firms ... have significant business with the state."

Voodoo economics

A Bloomberg News story on the first Business page today doesn't explain how a couple who are saving $500 a month, "thanks to cheap gasoline," can afford to visit Disney World and renovate their home (L-7).

"We're finally starting to feel like we're back in the middle class," Cheryl Saul of Emmaus, Pa., says.

The Record's business editors apparently couldn't find a North Jersey couple who suddenly felt they could splurge on an expensive vacation.

And, of course, by emphasizing the savings on cheap gas, the story takes the focus off of North Jersey Media Group and other employers who have frozen wages in recent years.

Dumpling mania?

A Better Living cover story by freelancer Nina Rizzo would have us believe North Jersey residents have suddenly discovered Asian dumplings (BL-1).

Rizzo claims dumplings are a "trend" that is "exploding among foodies nationwide and picking up speed in North Jersey."

What a joke. We've been eating Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese dumplings for decades.

This is another so-called trend story newspapers love to run to peak reader interest in a topic proposed by a staffer or freelancer such as Rizzo, who is a food writer for The Asbury Park Press.

Under WHERE TO FIND DUMPLINGS on BL-1 today, the name of a Closter restaurant, Homung Nangmyun, is misspelled.

Petite Soo Chow, a Chinese restaurant, also is listed, but there is no mention the Cliffside Park Health Department closed the place three times in less than three years for insect infestation and other unsanitary conditions.

We patronized the restaurant for its Shanghai-style soup dumplings in 2007 and 2008, but stopped going there after we saw the lone male waiter picking his nose in the dining room one time too many.

The first Health Department closure was in May 2009.