BY DAN VALENTI We begin with a rock. Granite. Marble. That kind of rock. We as a species have long employed stone for its memorial qualities. Rock endures. The most ordinary stone is probably millions of years old (what has it not experienced?). As physicists have demonstrated (and Eastern religions have “known” for much longer), […]
BY DAN VALENTI Every now and then (and more than you would suspect) The Planet retreats from words and enters wordlessness. Today we give you images, not words (except as commentary). Read on, my dear friends. In January 2010, we bought a set of oil paints and acrylics, jumped in the deep end of the […]
BY DAN VALENTI The city of Pittsfield presently faces a pension liability $186,547,000, of which $105,976,000 or 57% is unfunded. An unfunded liability is simply a promise to fund something without a cent being paid. The Planet has been addressing this issue going back to the mid-1990s. On the air and in print, we have […]
BY DAN VALENTI Peter Marchetti, where were you? Your friends on the council’s Gang of Seven could have used your vote. You could have helped them hit the taxpayer in the wallet again and at the same time grow local government into a more unwieldy bureaucracy. Be honest, my Right Honorable Good Friend. There’s no […]
BY DAN VALENTI The Eskimos have a vocabulary rich in verbs. They also have a multitude of words for what we cover in one: “snow.” The live by knowing the differences in the various kinds of frozen precipitation, and their vocabulary reflects this importance. In fact, a language’s words reveal much about a culture’s values. […]
BY DAN VALENTI The Boss’ Son Tells It Like It Is For this, I might become a Yankees fan. Yesterday, Hank Steinbrenner, showing more than a wee drop of his old man, issued a remark to an AP reporter that should make Joe Fan cheer. Joe Fan is the working stiff that the game has […]
BY DAN VALENTI Pittsfield taxpayers, get ready for another snow job. The storm we refer will affect only the taxpayers of the city. The politicians and the unions won’t have to move a flake. That’s when the mayor presents his budget, and the council, having lied told you there is no room for substantial cuts, […]
BY DAN VALENTI One of The Planet’s favorite venues is the Red Lion Inn. It’s a place of history that keeps on top of today. The Inn presents the solidity of tradition with the excitement of discovery. The Inn stands as a living, vibrant symbol to a time, not long ago in America, when parents […]
BY DAN VALENTI Here are some of the bits and pieces taken from the floating flotsam and jetsam orbiting The Planet (“Meet George Jetsam …”). More on (God Help Us) ‘Paul Dowd Stadium’ Naming Names — Another reason not to rename Wahconah Park in honor of Paul Dowd, Paul Nixon, Paul McCartney, Paul Harvey, John […]
BY DAN VALENTI As The Planet has presented in the past two days, both in cyberspace and on the radio airwaves, the mainstream media, led by the Boring Broadsheet, mischaracterized the Vatican’s ruling on the former St. Stanislaus Kostka church in Adams (the best mainstream coverage came from the Springfield Republican). We were right. They […]
BY DAN VALENTI The Planet did the final hour with The Fat Man and Ronnie this a.m. from noon to 1 p.m. That’s Bill Sturgeon and Ron Lee of WBRK’s “Bill Sturgeon Show.” We covered a lots of ground in a fast moving hour, including the St. Stan’s story, the possible renaming of Wahconah Park, […]
BY DAN VALENTI ——————————– This update on another breaking story (we post this at 8:45 p.m. 2/15/11): The Pittsfield Parks Commission, by a 5-0 unanimous vote, extended the Pittsfield Colonials’ license at Wahconah Park from May 2011 through September of 2013. —————————– We return now to our featured story on the former St. Stanislaus Kostka […]
BY DAN VALENTI A reminder that tomorrow is the February CEDS meeting. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m., 2nd floor conference room, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission offices, 1 Fenn St., Pittsfield. The public is technically welcome (The Planet would love to see what they’d do if the public actually started showing up […]
BY DAN VALENTI A disgruntled member of 1Berkshires, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Planet of what the source called a “sneaking suspicion” the group was essentially created as a shell organization to fight the PR wars for GE regarding the cleanup of PCBs in Pittsfield and downstream, especially South County. The official stressed […]
BY DAN VALENTI It’s been a busy day on The Planet, with all sorts of weather fronts moving in and out — low pressure, high pressure, turbulence, wind (lots of hot air, some of it ours), rain, and sun (there’s no snow in this part of the universe). Here are some items of the day. […]
BY DAN VALENTI There’s dumb. There’s dumber. There’s dumbest. And there’s Seth Rogovoy. Yesterday, The Planet got wind of Rogovoy’s twittering from the jury box. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Conor Berry of the Berkshire Eagle, who covered the trial, disputes that Rogovoy was twittering from the jury box itself, as in literally. The Planet agrees and never […]
