 |
| Cubby's BBQ in Hackensack got a new sign last week, and now the steakhouse and ribs crib is offering "fresh salads." |
By Victor E. Sasson
Editor
Few local news editors can compete with The Record's Deirdre Sykes.
Sykes, the long-time head assignment editor, has ordered photos of nearly every fender bender and non-fatal rollover accident in North Jersey, and her shots of downed utility poles may soon be submitted for a Pulitzer Prize.
Pole vaults
Today, like a dog sniffing for the urine of other canines, Sykes found big news in the removal of "several inches of soil around the base" of utility poles in Ridgewood (Local front).
The village's wealthy residents have few worries, but they've been obsessing lately over the installation of taller and stronger utility poles, and Sykes has ordered comprehensive coverage of the brouhaha.
Apparently, some Ridgewooders or Ridgewoodians have become alarmed about "staining that appears at the base of several recently installed utility poles," according to a PSE&G spokeswoman quoted on L-1 today.
This is a huge environmental story, and Sykes and her right-hand man, Dan Sforza, deserve kudos for another example of muckraking local journalism.
A fish called Marty
Another amazing local story appears on Page 1 today, where Editor Marty Gottlieb seems to be fascinated by a retiree who caught a fish from the Amazon in Passaic's Third Ward Veterans Memorial Park (A-1).
This story deserves a few paragraphs at best, but it grows and grows just like the length of a fish does in a good fish story.
Christie lover
Staff Writer Melissa Hayes can't say enough good things about Governor Christie, whom she appears to idolize.
Now, readers are doing a double take at her assertion in the first paragraph of an A-3 story that the GOP bully "has been open about his weight struggles."
This about a governor who has refused to disclose how much he weighs, and who hid his weight-loss surgery from the media until it was over.
A strong smell
And while The Record has endorsed Christie's "Stronger Than the Storm" campaign, an attorney at the Fair Share Housing Center in Cherry Hill notes:
"In Ocean County alone, 26,000 people are still displaced from their homes" (A-9) -- nearly a year after Superstorm Sandy.
Rich v. poor
The Local front today carries another long story about the Hudson News inheritance battle being waged by multimillionaires in Superior Court in Hackensack (L-1).
Staff Writer Kibret Markos continues to hammer home the contrast between plaintiff Samantha Perelman and defendant James Cohen, "and the everyday banality of medical malpractice, auto accidents and negligence cases."
Reporter ventures out
The byline of Staff Writer John Cichowski appears on L-2 today without his thumbnail Road Warrior photo and column logo.
To show how of out touch Cichowski is with the realities of traffic congestion, his first sentence is padded with a ridiculous statement:
"A state Assembly panel braved northern Hudson County's busy urban traffic Monday."
In his Sunday Road Warrior column, Cichowski also demonstrated his ignorance that traffic jams are everywhere when discussing a single intersection, according to a concerned reader's e-mail:
"Road Warrior falsely hypes traffic problems at Hackensack's Polifly Road and a Route 80 west exit, which he seems to be unaware of is just like dozens, if not hundreds, of intersections in Bergen County with similar traffic congestion.
"He also fails to realize that the increase in traffic accidents in this area was due to the significantly increased traffic, which he frequently reported was aggravated by the closure of the Route 17/Summit Avenue exit for more than 2 years.
"Road Warrior is not embarrassed to suggest some crazy ideas for this intersection, including a bridge flyover and red-light monitors, which even the Road Warrior's reporting shows is not supported by any crash reports, experience of local law enforcement officials or traffic safety engineers."
To read the full e-mail to the editors, click on the following link to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:
Road Warrior is on the blink again
Elder news
See today's Better Living cover for a rare story about seniors who don't live in nursing homes (BL-1).
Unfortunately, The Record fails to tell seniors that some supplemental Medicare polices include a free membership in 24 Hour Fitness, Gold's and other gyms under the Silver Sneakers program.
Related articles
Thought Sykes isn't there anymore
ReplyDeleteShe is directing things by phone. LOL.
DeleteShe is still employed there, but hasn't been in the office for more than a month.
DeleteShe has flubitis
ReplyDeleteInflammation in a vein. Her leg or legs? Weight related?
DeleteYou must have better sources than us. Good job.
ReplyDeleteIf the comment about Deirdre Sykes having flubitis is accurate, it means The Record doesn't bother to help employees improve their health and wellness through any programs offered by Human Resources.
ReplyDeleteEmployees like Sykes, Tim Nostrand and others who work with them, but whom I won't name, have been in denial for years, nay decades, and seem to flaunt their unhealthy lifestyles.
Sadly, they are also among the people who decide what the paper covers, so there has been little meaningful reporting on the childhood obesity epidemic, what kind of food schools serve children and how Governor Christie's mean-spirited budgets have affected the nutrition of low-income students, among other stories Sykes, Nostrand and others ignore.
Isn't it phlebitis? Maybe flubitis is a condition of poor editing...
ReplyDelete