Food critic 'transported' to Spain should have stayed there

How robust is the state's economy? In Hackensack, thousands of new and used Toyotas stretch from River Street to the Hackensack River. Today, The Record reports the unemployment rate of 6.5% in May is a full percentage point above the national rate.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Restaurant critic Elisa Ung of the The Record tries hard to persuade readers that dishes served at Sangria restaurant in Mahwah "transported" her to Spain.

But her lukewarm, 2-star review in Better Living likely will have many steering clear of the place, which actually put out a hilarious sign reading:

"Modern Spaniard Cuisine"

Ung found "soggy paella, "greasy steak and ... disappointing sangria" (BL-18).

And she hated three of the four desserts she sampled, claiming the bread pudding contained "undercooked chunks of bread."

Off to Spain

Still, she says, a platter of ham, cheese and nuts, and another dessert transported her to Spain, where the owner's father was born.

Why didn't she just stay there, and try the rabo de toro at a Madrid restaurant not far from the bullring?

My advice for the owner: 

Change your stupid sign to "Modern Cuisine of Spain," even though you have Cuban and other dishes on the menu.

My advice for Ung:

Your job is to weed out disappointing restaurants, and when you find one, a few paragraphs of warning would suffice.

Doom and gloom

Why comment on the weekly restaurant review, which is buried deep in the paper?

Look at today's sensational front page, which is soaked in blood, if you will (A-1).

And almost the entire front of the Local section is Law & Order news, including a spectacular photo of a burning, overturned vehicle (L-1).

Errors 'r' us

But the errors keep on piling up, as demonstrated by the four detailed corrections on A-2 today.

Other errors in Thursday's paper aren't even acknowledged, some are repeated and new errors appear today.

Staff Writer Deena Yellin continues to send mixed messages on the death of a 13-year-old Cresskill boy who was riding his bicycle to school on Wednesday morning, just as she did in her story on Thursday. 

Her first paragraph reports Young Rok Lee was "struck and killed ... by a tractor-trailer" (L-1).

But her second paragraph says Lee "collided" with the back of the tractor-trailer, suggesting he rode into it.

Can't get town right

Also on L-1, the caption with the photo of the burning vehicle reports "three Englewood police officers and the deputy chief" were involved in the rescue of the driver.

But when readers turn to the story on L-5, they learn the officers and deputy chief were from Englewood Cliffs, not Englewood.

Readers never learn whether the unidentified woman whose vehicle hit a utility pole was speeding, texting or putting on her makeup before she lost control.

Burying a really good story

Image via Wikipedia

You'll really have to search for one of the best stories in The Record of Woodland Park today. Some knuckle-headed news editor -- probably under orders from clueless head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes -- decided a bid by Orthodox Jews to win election to the Teaneck school board is of little interest to anyone.

Two elements on the front page don't belong there: a big baseball photo and Toyota halting the sale of a low-selling luxury SUV. They tell readers there is no news today. (Photo: Teaneck High School.)

But in the back of Local, at the bottom of Page L-7, Staff Writer Joseph Ax reports three Orthodox Jews who send their children to yeshiva are running against three school board incumbents. The challengers are concerned about low test scores despite Teaneck spending more money than other districts, the story says. 

Critics of the Jewish candidates say their only motive is cutting school expenses and their property taxes. There is no mention of studies showing how minority children do better in an integrated setting than in one where parents pull their kids out of public schools. Today's story also doesn't give the percentage of minority and non-minority public-school students in Teaneck. Maybe Ax is doing a follow.

When Orthodox Jewish candidates attempted a takeover of the school board in Englewood, the story ran on Page 1, largely due to my nagging from the news copy desk. I lived in Englewood at the time and my son was attending the segregated public schools there, and I passed on campaign material sent to my home to the Englewood reporter. I also edited the story and wrote the headlines.

The Jewish slate was defeated. Yet, Englewood's elementary and middle schools are still segregated, which you might not know from the recent, sporadic coverage of that city.


Looking for Hackensack news in the former Hackensack daily? Sucker.

Where is the local flavor?

Image by romulusnr via Flickr

A former Edgewater resident said in a letter to the editor today: "Without news coverage like yours, the ordinary citizen would not even know about the plans to destroy this public blessing."

Have you seen a letter like that from Hackensack readers thanking The Record of Woodland Park for news coverage of their city?

Not counting police or fire news, the last municipal story about Hackensack ran Dec. 22, when Staff Writer Nick Clunn reported plans for a new arts center. Since then, the only other stories concerned lawsuits -- one against a tavern and numerous allegations against Police Chief Ken Zisa.

But head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes seemingly has failed to direct Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado to ask the mayor and City Council whether they have lost faith in Zisa or will be suspending him until the suits are resolved. And there has been nothing more about a possible probe of Zisa by the county prosecutor, reported Feb. 14. What does Sykes do all day, besides laugh?

Residents rarely get to read about what the Hackensack council and Planning Board are doing. They don't know how other residents feel about the Zisa family, which allegedly controls the city. On June 13, Alvarado reported the Upper Main Street special improvement district director was fired, but never followed up. A major story recently on such downtown districts failed to mention the Hackensack official's firing or the reason.

The two Hackensack weeklies are useless. One is owned owned by North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, and the other is edited by a Zisa.

Like stories about the suits against the police chief, court, police news and news about the police are fast becoming the new local news. Covering meetings is boring. Five stories in Local today are about crime, trials or the police, including the Teaneck and Bogota departments seeking a grant to study a merger.

The rest of the paper today is dominated by fallout over the Toyota recalls and Governor Christie's relentless cost-cutting. I still have not seen a story on whether all these executive orders will lead to lower  property taxes in Hackensack, where I live.

Untold Toyota story

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The Record of Woodland Park and other mainstream media have had numerous stories about the ongoing recalls of millions of Toyota vehicles, but no one seems to remember the "secret warranties" uncovered by the Center for Auto Safety in Washington, D.C.

Below is the link to the center's site and the story on how Toyota and other automakers have long hidden  defects from buyers. Click on "Toyota's secret warranties."

My first Toyota was a 1986 Celica.When my air conditioner failed, I obtained a list of hidden Toyota defects from the center and used it to get free repairs at the Toyota dealer after the warranty had expired. Now, I'm waiting for a recall letter on my 2010 Prius (photo).


Toyota's secret warranties

Editors who sing for their supper

A newspaper is only as good as its local assignment desk, those editors who largely determine the content of the paper by virtue of assigning reporters to cover certain stories. I had a lot of time to observe The Record's assignment desk when I worked there as a news copy editor for nearly two decades.

Copy editors are a lot like Toyota mechanics: Toyotas may have a reputation for reliability, but the mechanics see all the broken ones. The Record may have a good reputation, too, but the copy editors see all  the broken stories -- stories that have been promoted, edited and approved by those lazy assignment editors.

Here is a ditty I wrote about six or seven years ago that reflects my experience with assignment editors starting in September 1989, when I became a copy editor after 10 years as a reporter at The Record.

When I wrote this song, the newsroom was still in Hackensack and the assignment desk was run by Deirdre Sykes, an immovable force whose shrieks and peals of laughter echoed across the room late every weekday afternoon -- no matter how grim the news that day -- prompting homicidal thoughts in nearby staffers.

SONG OF THE ASSIGNMENT EDITORS

    We sit on our fat asses to scan the 

competing papers,
   
    Then order out for linguini, oil, garlic and capers;
   
    We run a newsroom that can’t write straight,
   
    And our copy’s arrival is frequently late;
   
    We can’t write a nut graf and we’re lousy at math,
   
    So we avoid reporting on community wrath;
   
    Challenge authority?
   
    No thanks. That’s not our priority!
   
    We assign reporters to cover lots of stories,
                           
    Rapes, council meetings, train wrecks, but never Tories;  


    Our unsteady publisher hits the sauce each and every day,
   
    So his attitude toward probing local news coverage is, 

What the hey!

   
    Our newsroom is busy, it’s often in a tizzy,
   
    With editors, photographers, reporters and graphics people 

running to and fro,
   
    Yet we’re just a bunch of journalism hos.