A skeleton Sunday paper

Image via Wikipedia

If you've been wondering what Staff Writer Colleen Diskin has been doing in the months since the editors took her Mother Load column away (without notice to readers), you can see the fruits of her labor on Page 1 today -- and for another two and a half pages inside The Record of Woodland Park.


Her story -- on  youth baseball teams' endless seasons -- is endless itself, and there are four more parts to the series coming! 

Jeez, Colleen, didn't head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes let you wile away the months like Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado did on the so-called investigation of Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa or like Alvarado, Staff Non-Writer Jean Rimbach and others did when they wasted nearly three years on the vendetta against former Hackensack Chief of Detectives Michael Mordaga? 

Readers with kids playing baseball might be glued to the page, but the majority of readers won't be. And what do they get to read of interest to them? Not much.


This Sunday paper is a ghost of past editions. Hasn't there been enough coverage of the conflict between Governor Christie and his education commissioner? Does Columnist Mike Kelly really add anything or is he, as usual, just running in place? Can't he find a more compelling topic? Maybe he should ride one of the decrepit local buses that pass through Teaneck, where he lives, and report on how poorly NJ Transit treats minority riders.

I wish we could dismantle Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski's mind to find out why he has totally abandoned his mission of writing about the commuting woes of drivers and mass transit users, in favor of columns on car theft, potholes, the Route 80 exit to the Woodland Park office and all the other nonsense he spends time exploring. 

Shame on Sykes, who picked Cichowski to write the column in late 2003 and hasn't noticed how boring his stuff has become. The column has become a public disservice.


In Local, there are stories about a teacher, students or education in Bergenfield, Tenafly, Paramus and the Pascack Valley, but not a word about Hackensack and Englewood schools. Nor is there any other news today about those important Bergen County communities or Teaneck.


To ensure that today's Travel section contains no useful information for readers planning vacations, photos from Readers on the Road cover all of Page T-3 today, and the editors couldn't get Travel Editor Jill Schensul to shut up about her cruise through Europe. 

Why Publisher Stephen A. Borg folded the Food section and allowed the thin Travel section to survive is known only to him. It's curious that Schensul is an animal lover who rarely runs stories on restaurants and cuisine, one of the main reasons people travel.