Sit down and read awhile

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There is a lot to digest in The Record of Woodland Park today, starting on Page 1, with more than you'd ever want to know about changing the system for getting rid of poorly performing teachers, a story that takes up a good part of two more inside pages. 

Also on A-1, the litany of bad financial deals made by Governor Christie's Democratic and Republican predecessors stops short of reminding readers how Republican Tom Kean Sr. (photo) deliberately hid a huge deficit from then-incoming Gov. Jim Florio. Kean must be one of The Record's sacred cows.

Check out Page A-8, the continuation of the teacher tenure opus by Staff Writer Leslie Brody. A photo of Michael Drewniak, the far-from-brainiac spokesman for Christie, will remind newsroom staffers of their fearful leader, Editor Francis "Castrato" Scandale. A frightening resemblance.


No matter how screwed up everything is, there is always room for sports on a front page inspired by Scandale. First, the Jets lost and now the Giants lost a preseason game in the new Meadowlands stadium. The end of the world must be next. 

Page 1 today also refers readers to the obituary on A-11 for Harold Dow of CBS News, an African-American journalist who grew up in Hackensack and lived in Upper Saddle River. His photo on A-1 reminds me of what a poor job Scandale has done attracting and retaining minority journalists, including three he got rid of. 


The discriminating editors devote a big part of the Local front today to scams against the elderly -- one of the few times seniors have gotten any real editorial attention in recent years (except for the older workers shown the newsroom door during the downsizing of The Record and Herald News).

An L-1 story on a "coupon queen" doesn't discuss why supermarket shoppers rarely see such discounts on healthy food.


Despite all the micromanaging of head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes, there is no Hackensack, Englewood or Teaneck news of any kind today, but there is a five-paragraph, L-3 story on Fort Lee preschool accepting 3-year-olds, as if every parent there hasn't already received a letter from the school board on this subject.

The Opinion front has a meaty piece on how the governor is changing the home-rule system of government, and a forceful column from Mike Kelly on priests who sexually abuse boys, but the latter is padded with too much background information.



Let's hope the new food editor improves coverage that often amounts to inane wire-service stories, such as the one about frozen food on the front of Better Living today.


The selection of Susan Leigh Sherrill, an editor at (201) magazine, is a sure sign that Publisher Stephen A. Borg continues to be involved in major editorial decisions long after he moved his office out of the newsroom. That's a slap in the face to Scandale and Features Director Barbara Jaeger, who chose her predecessor.


I don't know whether Sherrill is a full-time employee at the North Jersey Media Group magazine or a free-lancer, or whether she will be paid the same $71,000-plus a year that Bill Pitcher received for far less experience. 


Unfortunately, the word on the street is that readers may not be well-served. A foodie I met at the Tenafly farmers' market this morning said Sherrill knows nothing about food.