Chaptzem Blog!      

What does the height of the editorial staff have to do with whether or not the can write proper English?

 

While their editorial staff may indeed be dwarfs, or perhaps they meant they are handicapped by NOT being dwarfs...
They seem to have forgotten that in their second issue ever, which is (was, anyway) framed and hanging in their reception area, there was a boxed front-page note to the effect of "Since some peoples greatest pleasure comes from pointing out the mistakes of others, we are inserting a lot of typos so they should enjoy the paper, too"!
I have often quoted this as the best / only good "vort" I ever saw in that paper.

 

Why the sarcasm? The response seems eloquent to me. And to say something dwarfs something else is a common expression meaning larger in any way, not just "height."

 

the jewish press editors are among the snarkiest that way.

like a bunch of schoolyard ego bullies.

 

Sinking deeper into the quicksand, the first sentence is terribly structured. "...is it just us" is an incorrect implication. Try again. While I do read the JP as opposed to the other Jewish papers because generally, the content is more open-minded, the typos are a problem.

 

i guarantee you that response was from Arthur Klass. he is notorious for bullying and harassing agencies that deal with the paper or anyone who his paranoid mind thinks "crossed" him

 

"Is it just us" is fine in its context -- this was a private reply to a stupid e-mail, and whoever wrote the reply was obviously being jocular and informal.

 

who reads the jewish press anyways these days? it was for the old bubbes who would sit at home knitting woolen socks while reading arnold fine...

 

Original post:

"Do you hunt for typos or other errors in other newspapers, or is it just us?"

This is incorrect grammar because it contains implications that are indefinite and probably not what the "tool" who wrote them intended.

For example, when he says "Do you hunt. . .or is it just us" can be read as meaning "Do you [Chaptzem] also hunt for mistakes or are we the only ones [who hunt for mistakes]?"

I think what this great mind wanted to say was "Do you hunt for typos or other errors in other newspapers or only in ours?" While that would be grammatically correct, it begs the response, "Yes, we look for errors everywhere. We strive for accuracy as you should too."

There is an old saying about "people who live in glass houses."

 

what a baby.
can you imagine if every single editor sent an email like that to jay leno for making fun of them in his "headlines" ???
sheesh

 

2:57 p.m.:

I was very impressed with your writing until the last sentence where you wrote "We strive for accuracy as you should too."

This statement was written in an amateur fashion. The professional way to write it would have been "We strive for accuracy as should you."

 

As someone noted above, this seems to have been an informal e-mail reply, not an article written and edited for publication. If this was an article in the paper, I could understand the excitement here -- oooh, this e-mail response doesn't meet the high standards of Chaptzem. It's a private e-mail response, people. I once wrote an e-mail to Joseph Lelyveld when he was executive editor of the New York Times, and the response I got contained two typos and one bad error of syntax. Big deal.

 

To the person who asked "can you imagine if every single editor sent an email like that to jay leno for making fun of them in his "headlines" ???": the person at the Jewish Press who sent the response didn't send it Chaptzem because of the original post, which would be like someone complaining to Leno, they sent it to the Chaptzem reader who e-mailed the paper about the typo. Sheesh -- talk about a lack of reading comprehension skills.

 

Everyone makes mistakes. Get over it.

 

i remember the JP did a review on Levanas Restaurant. they reviewed a steak in shitaki sauce but they left out a few letters of SHITaki.

 

I remember that one too!! And if the response was an informal one, well, that's just the problem! If you are going to respond, especially to a media outlet, whether privately or publicly, at least let the rebuttal be correct.

 

I think it's wonderful that readers here are actually discussing the use of proper English.

To those who ask why people would needle the Jewish Press for their error-laden response, the answer is simple.

The paper and its owners routinely adopt a holier than thou attitude with their readers. A few months ago a man sent in a letter complaining that when he sat shiva, various people he did not know put down collection plates for tzedakahs he equally did not know. His letter was intended simply to ask our community not to collect tzedakah in the home of an "avail" without first getting permission from someone in the family.

Perfectly reasonable, if you ask me.

So why bring up this story? When the Jewish Press printed this letter to the editor, the editor titled it with a special message to this man, still in the shloshim. That title was (and this is almost verbatim):

MAYBE YOU SHOULD LIVE IN BAY RIDGE

What a nice, erlicher, chesedike thing to write to someone in our community?

If you want to criticize the editing of the Jewish Press, I say keep it coming.

 

To the person who claimed the Jewish Press was being insensitive to an avel by putting a headline above his letter that said "Maybe you'd rather live in Bay Ridge?" --you are either lying or suffering from memory loss. The Internet is a wonderful thing -- this didn't seem right to me so I went to the Jewish Press website and did a little search. The letter you referenced was IN RESPONSE to an earlier letter from an avel who was complaining about people coming into a shiva house to silicit charity. Someone wrote a letter answering him and pointing out all the good things about living in Jewish neighborhoods. It was that letter which was titled "Maybe You'd Rather Live In Bay Ridge?" This completely changes the context and meaning of what you were rying to foist on people here. This is the letter in question:

Maybe You’d Prefer Bay Ridge?

I’d like to address this letter to reader Zev Stern:

It’s clear that you have an agenda when you use terms like “haredi” and “uniform” (Letters, Aug. 31). Obnoxious, boorish people come in all nationalities, religions, and types of Orthodox Jews. I’m not condoning it, but it sort of comes with the territory of living in a predominantly haredi neighborhood with all the beautiful organizations and forms of chesed that exist.

From the tone of your letter, it sounds like you might be a lot happier in a non-Jewish neighborhood where you won’t be bothered by these irritating “mendicants.”

Another thing that is puzzling about your letter: If the organization in question has, by your own assessment, done very good work in the community, why would you punish the entire community and in a sense cut off your nose to spite your face (as opposed to, I don’t know, calling the organization and complaining about this obviously unbalanced individual who is making the organization look bad)?

Steve Schwartz

Lakewood, NJ

 

Let's not forget the classic of all classic Jewish Press typos. At the start of the Yom Kippur War, the Jewish Press had in their biggest bold blue letter on the front page:

ABABS ATTACK ISRAEL

 

Daniel @7:27 A.M:

Liar is a pretty strong term for what would, by your reasoning, be merely a misunderstanding.

Nevertheless, despite your agile use of the search engines, you missed the point. It was a Jewish Press editor, not the letter writer himself, who decided to write the title "Maybe You'd Rather Live In Bay Ridge."

This put the stamp of approval of the Jewish Press on the criticism. I am not the only one who thinks so as I received numerous e-mails from different people in agreement that the editor's actions were despicable.

By the way, thank you for writing. One of the things I love about the Chaptzem blog is that it shows that no matter how disgusting an action may be, whether it's tax evasion, child molesting or, in this case, embarrassing another Jew in public BY NAME, there is always someone willing to defend it.

Is this Brooklyn? I'm beginning to feel like I've been transported to Chelm.

 

To the poster above who still claims it was a Jewish Press editor who, by putting the headline "Maybe you'd Prefer Bay Ridge?" on the letter was signaling approval of the criticism: The only stamp of approval was on the criticism of the guy who wrote the earlier letter complaining about people asking for tzedakah at a shiva house. The follow-up letter, the one I copied and pasted from the Jewish Press website, was a letter taking issue with the attitude of that first letter-writer. THAT was the letter to which the Jewish Press editor affixed the title "Maybe You'd Prefer Bay Ridge?" -- which echoed the tone and content of the letter. The letter-writer was directly addressing the guy who'd written the earlier letter -- as in this sentence: "From the tone of your letter, it sounds like you might be a lot happier in a non-Jewish neighborhood where you won’t be bothered by these irritating “mendicants.”
The whole letter was written in that vein -- you might be happier in a non-Jewish neighbothood, you don't appreciate all the good work these charities do, etc. So the title on the letter was simply summing up what the letter-writer was saying -- and again, the criticism was directed toward the avel who had complaining about living in a neighborhood where so many Jews come asking for tzedaka. The fact that you refuse to see this -- and that you go so far as to somehow compare defending the title to defending child molestation or tax evasion -- says a lot about you, unfortunately.

 

Daniel,

You still don't get it. Or you refuse to get it.

I live in Borough Park. Yes, there are a lot of good works done in Borough Park. I, however agree with the opinion that people should not collect tzedakah in someone else's house without permission.

Are you saying that means I, too, should move to Bay Ridge?

My comment that "One of the things I love about the Chaptzem blog is that it shows that no matter how disgusting an action may be. . .there is always someone willing to defend it" was directed precisely AT YOU because YOU are willing to defend the Jewish Press for this offensive headline.

Chaptzem readers who wish to make up their minds for themselves may look at http://www.jewishpress.com/displayContent_new.cfm?contentid=23840&mode=a&contentname=Letters_To_The_Editor&recnum=6&fromsect=5

Why ARE you defending the Jewish Press, Daniel?

Do you work there?

The title I quoted follows the same style as the letter sent to the Chaptzem reader, namely, if we don't like what you say, if you criticize us, we will belittle you.

This is not my problem, friend, but rather a problem for anyone who does not see this as being wrong.

 

In regard to living in Bay Ridge, I live in a quiet section of New York City, I won't say which section, that is like "Out of town". I wouldn't live in Boro Park or Flatbush if you paid me. I have everything I need here,when I sat shiva several years ago, I was the one who put out the plates for tzedaka. I have mostly goyish neighbors, and nobody bothers me or asks me nosy questions. It's idyllic privacy.