More screw-ups by the news copy desk

Wide receiver Victor Cruz couldn't find time for a hometown parade until Sunday, nearly three months after the Giants' Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco team. He also hasn't found time to marry the mother of his child.

Leave it to Editor Liz Houlton's news copy editors to embarrass The Record again -- this time on today's front page.

The large photo of Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz appears on Page 1 over a caption that says he is "performing his signature salsa with his mother, Blanca," in Paterson.

If you read that literally, Cruz is performing his signature "sauce." Yes. Salsa also is a music and dance style, but when the word stands alone, it means sauce.

Out of the pot

Staff Writer Jay Levin, who covered the parade, doesn't make that error, being careful in his L-1 story to pair "salsa" with a modifier, as in "salsa-dancing wide receiver" and "his famous salsa steps."

How did Levin, who is the local obituary writer, get roped into writing about Cruz's Sunday homecoming on the same day his triumphant Titanic story dominated Page 1? 

Maybe Levin should stick to writing about dead people.

Another error

Houlton's error-prone copy editors screwed up another caption, this one under a photo of Sen. Frank Lautenberg on A-7.

"The senator will be 90, if he decides to seek reelection in 2014."

How old will he be, if he doesn't run?

The Lautenberg story, which starts on Page 1, is entirely too long, which has been the case with many front-page stories since Editor Marty Gottlieb took over in late January.

In another overlong story -- on the Trayvon mural in Elmwood Park -- the biggest unanswered question is why any one man should be mayor of that borough for 41 years (A-1).