Image via WikipediaWhen was the last time The Record failed to publish a weekly restaurant review, as it did today? The centerfold of Better Living looks positively weird after nearly three years of mouth-watering food photography.
I guess frugal Features Director Barbara Jaeger was economizing or her planning was way off, with one food editor leaving and a new one taking over this week.
Look at all the Page 1 space Editor Francis "Frank The Castrato" Scandale devotes to the niche horse-racing audience, while relegating the potential loss of New Jersey Network and the actual loss of farmland to Pages A-3 and A-6, respectively.
The lead A-1 story on workers' growing health-insurance burden isn't news, especially to employees of the Borgs' North Jersey Media Group, where health benefits began to erode a dozen or more years ago. Curiously, the story quotes only business groups, with no input from employee unions whatsoever.
Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin sounds like a blithering idiot today, with his comparison of the Governor Christie-Bret Schundler brouhaha to actor Mel Gibson's physical and verbal abuse of Oksana Grigorieva (A-19).
I guess we should have expected dumbing down of the opinion pages from this former Herald News staffer.
Except for the Road Warrior column on traffic alerts, the entire front of the Local news section today is devoted to court stories, with the most interesting one pushed down to the bottom of the page in favor of tabloid news. A fourth court story appears on L-2.
Meanwhile, you won't find any news from Hackensack, Englewood, Teaneck or many other towns, big and small.
The L-1 story about natty Hugh Johnson of Closter carries a headline identifying him as a gadfly, but nowhere in the text does that word appear, nor is there any description of his gadfly activities. This is another example of the decline of news copy editing at the paper that seems to be irreversible.
A quarter of Page L-6 is given to a breathless account of the capture of a 4-foot alligator in Wayne.
Publisher Stephen A. Borg probably is spending the Labor Day weekend in the Hamptons or down the shore, but he can rest assured that in his absence, Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hens" Sykes are doing a great job for readers.
However, he might want to check on the health of the new food editor he hand picked. Is Susan Sherrill on a hunger strike? Is that why Better Living failed to deliver a restaurant review today?
What about Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung, who returned from a six-month maternity leave about 10 days ago? In view of her appetite, it's a puzzle why her review won't appear until next Friday. Maybe no one could get her to put down her dessert fork.
(Photo: Mel Gibson mugshot from his 2006 DUI arrest.)
They could of republished Ung's review of Bahama Breeze for a good laugh!
ReplyDeleteYeah, you're absolutely right. She gave that lousy chain restaurant two stars.
ReplyDeleteAww, why don't you two quit raggin' on ol' Elisa Ung. It's tough enough she's gotta start pushing away those tempting desserts if she wants to regain her girlish figure after having a baby. Of course if the new food editor insists she review dessert, she might just take one bite and leave the rest. Good girl, Elisa.
ReplyDeleteGirlish? You're being charitable. She used to walk past my seat at the news copy desk on the way out of the Hackensack building, invariably chattering about restaurants with another staffer.
ReplyDeleteBlame Pitcher for this one. He walked off the job a week early and forfeited his severance when he found out they didn't eliminate his job so much as they wanted someone else in it. He's working as a restaurant manager at one of the places he reviewed and probably eating all the meat and dessert he can.
ReplyDeleteYours is the first indication that he didn't leave voluntarily. He told friends he was moving to New York State to help take care of his father-in-law, who has a serious disease.
ReplyDelete