 Image via Wikipedia |
| Age pyramid for Bergen County, based on Census 2000 data. |
owns consider tax lien sales
How long did it take you to figure out what the lead headline on the front of today's Local section says? Or didn't you bother, seeing the embarrassing typo -- "owns" for "Towns" -- as another sign of The Record of Woodland Park's precipitous decline in quality -- writ large? (On Friday's Page 1, a subhead had "overuns" instead of "overruns.")
After all, this Local section is head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' pride and joy. It's where this lazy, incompetent woman and her clueless assistants showcase their best local news. Today, the best they could do is to lead with a process story on tax liens. Yawn.
Overall, the section has become Sykes' trash can -- often filled with minor police and fire news and accident photos that are blown up as big as possible to take the place of real news the staff didn't generate.
Holes in is head
Thank God Brockhuizen Lane in Hawthorne finally has been paved. Hopefully, we won't hear anymore about it from White Road Supremacist John Cichowski, the columnist who continues to ignore his mission of writing about commuting problems.
Is this his fourth or fifth column on the handful of bitchy families who were outnumbered by their dinky little street's potholes (L-1)?
Joseph Ax, the Teaneck reporter, was on weekend duty Saturday, when he was assigned to cover Nicole Polizzi, the reality show bimbo who is also known as "Snooki," signing autographs at Westfield Garden State Plaza (L-3). Is this news? It's hard to believe there was nothing better to cover. See how far Ax has fallen. The Record sent him to Haiti to cover the earthquake's aftermath.
Real news on A-1
On Page 1, there is real news for a change -- the battle for Bergen County executive -- the most important election for Bergen residents next month. Democratic incumbent Dennis McNerney and challenger Kathleen Donovan, the Republican county clerk, have debated twice, but those stories were relegated to Sykes' disgraceful local section to make room for the Yankees or some other nonsense on A-1.
Democratic voters finally have a real alternative to McNerney, who has been too cozy with three political figures who were indicted and who seems determined to keep the county police force, though few residents can tell you what it does except issue traffic summonses and drive him to a baseball game in the Bronx.
You'd think a bunch of overpaid athletes like the Giants would be eating nothing but wild-caught seafood, grass-fed beef and lamb, and organic produce, but there's no mention of that in Staff Writer Kara Yorio's silly story on the Better Living front today. She says one player focuses on "quality real ingredients."
Shut Pizza Hut
With all the great pizza available in North Jersey, does anybody really care how Pizza Hut makes one of the worst pies out there or would want to read a book by someone who spends time trying to recreate it? Look at that recipe and the one for Cheesecake Factory's red velvet cheesecake (F-3).
Does The Corner Table Columnist Elisa Ung think readers want to chain themselves to the stove and try these, long, complicated recipes? Maybe she gets paid for doing that, but we don't. Hey, Ung, get real, and try to overcome your obsession with dessert. You're out of touch with thousands of your readers.
If you thought there was little good food coverage when Bill Pitcher was food editor and glorified recipe editor, the emphasis on sweets and recipes has reached new lows under Food Editor Susan Sherrill, Ung's supervisor.
