I'd like to take a baseball bat and ...

Image by wallyg via Flickr

I guess it will take the fat end of a baseball bat shoved up Editor Frank Scandale's you-know-what before the "Castrato" stops wasting readers' time by covering Page 1 of  The Record of Woodland Park with the exploits of overpaid baseball players, such as today's big color photo of pumped-up Yankee Alex Rodriguez. 


Given the state's fiscal mess, outrageous property taxes, a broken home-rule system and numerous other concerns, you'd think there is plenty of other news worthy of A-1. But Scandale, who was castrated by Publisher Stephen A. Borg's almost total revamp of news and feature coverage, continues to lord over the front page and give priority to the interests of a minority of his North Jersey readers.


Many of the other stories in today's paper raised questions that were never answered, on A-1 or elsewhere. For example, why is no wealthy New Jersey resident among those answering Warren Buffett's call to pledge half their wealth to charity? Why didn't the Borgs respond?


I wanted to know a lot more about what looks like the meaningless death of a 21-year Glen Rock woman, who witnesses said walked head-on into a moving NJ Transit train with her head down, and why the Ramsey station didn't have better safety measures. The L-1 story says the woman raised money for a suicide-prevention group, but doesn't explore the possibility she committed suicide.


Of course, if the train fatality was played on A-1, as it deserves to be instead of baseball, then head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes wouldn't have anything to put on the front of her pathetic Local section, which has had only one Englewood story since July 15.


Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado follows Wednesday's confusing story on school board re-votes with a deadly dull piece today on legal maneuvering in the disciplinary hearing of a police lieutenant, yet writes almost an entire column to say the hearing may be postponed. She has yet to write about the city budget, tax hike or new mayor. Teaneck reporter Joseph Ax has another story about that endangered giant oak tree.


Reporters love press tours, such as the one the Port Authority gave Wednesday to publicize a 75-year-old aviation warning beacon atop a tower of the George Washington Bridge (the L-2 story doesn't say which tower). The clueless assignment desk sent Tom Davis and a photographer out, but has never nagged the transportation reporter to ride on and write about the decrepit NJ Transit buses that creak and moan along local routes.

Can you make any sense of the A-16 editorial that seems to be calling for reform of the home-rule system of municipal government? There is so much in here about raw sewage, maybe the editorial is just more timid bullshit from Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin. 


A second letter to the editor says the entrance to the new Overpeck Park is hard to find, and, like the first, the paper simply prints Paramus resident Richard Conroy's complaint today, but fails to indicate how to get there (try Challenger Boulevard in Ridgefield Park.)

On the front of Better Living, that long piece about the best lobster roll in New York City would have been more useful to readers if Food Editor Bill Pitcher or one of Feature Director Barbara Jaeger's young staffers weighed in on  North Jersey options. Hint: CIA-trained Chef Christine Nunn offers two lobster rolls, with slaw and fries, for $30 at Picnic, the Restaurant, in Fair Lawn.