By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2012) — Shut up, slow down, sit up, and enjoy. Poetry is not cod liver oil, though it is more beneficial. It may yet sanctify the savage souls, one at a time, and if but one, then a universe. THE PLANET‘s […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2012) — My, but how we have kicked the hornet’s nest known as Lenox. Actually, wording it properly, we should say we have kicked the hornet’s neXt in the Town Formerly Know As Lenox. We say “next” because there is more […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2012) — From the Fortress Ballroom, high atop a mountainside overlooking the city, we present a few reader and commentator notes to begin with, for your dining and dancing pleasure. We shall emit the dulcet tones of Johnny Polio and the […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2012) — “Lenoxology.” Have we put you off your toast? Sorry, then, but it can’t be helped. This word is the vomit comet of slogans. It makes men want to leave and heave. Women want to give it chicken soup … […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary ADD 1 APRIL 24, 2012 The e-mail sent yesterday to THE PLANET under the name “Mark Mancari” of Greylock Federal Credit Union has turned out to be bogus. THE PLANET contracted the real Mark Mancari today, and he confirmed information that we had received earlier by way […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary and Everything (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012) — For the first time since the scandal broke in 2010, a senior Greylock Federal Credit Union has gone on the record about the circumstances surrounding former CEO Angelo Stracuzzi‘s exit from the company. The key question have […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary ADD #1 FRIDAY, APRIL 20 SPRINGSIDE PARK CLEANUP WILL HAPPEN, WITH OR (MORE LIKELY) WITHOUT CLEANUP THE PLANET reminds everyone of the all-day cleanup at Springside Park, scheduled to begin tomorrow at 9 a.m. Please support this wonderful community effort. Volunteers will have the chance to show […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY-FRIDAY, APRIL 19-20, 2012) — Anyone who read the May 2009 ruling of Judge Francis Fecteau in upholding a lower court’s dismissal of the Bernie Baran‘s conviction, published in full on THE PLANET yesterday, can only agree: the Pittsfield criminal justice system, especially the […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY, APRIL 18-19, 2012) —When Berkshire County District Attorney David Capeless dropped all charges against Bernie Baran, he in effect declared Baran’s innocence. THE PLANET uses the word “innocent” with a reminding caution:We are not judges using the term from the bench […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 2012) — First, THE PLANET sends condolences to the Downing family on the loss of Nate Downing, Sen. Ben Downing‘s brother, who died recently. We extend our sympathies at their loss. We know we speak for many on this website when […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS & COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2012) — Many have asked how Toby II turned out. As you likely know, Toby II was the Kirvin Park dog walk organized by Pittsfield citizen Ken Ramsdell to honor cute, little Toby Moore, the pooch hero of the sad events […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News, Commentary, and Everything (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012) — This Sunday, April 15, beginning at 9 a.m. and continuing to whenever, Ken Ramsdell and Friends presents the Toby II Dog Walk, in honor of little Toby Moore, the hero of the events of Dec. 8, 2011. Toby […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2012) — This is a poem written by Gwendolyn Brooks in 1960. With only a few topical updates, it can be used as the epitaph of the Gangsta hip-hop culture that has so permeated and infected America. Last night, The Professor […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 2012) — The Friends of Springside Park have scheduled their annual volunteer cleanup for Saturday, April 21, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. For those who want more information, go to this link: http://www.facebook.com/FriendsofSpringside. Friends, the Reich Fuhrer, and The Ramsdellian Gauntlet […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2012) — As we wrote last week, the Angelo Stracuzzi case from Biddeford, Maine is still relevant on many fronts, including its legal implications for Greylock Federal Credit Union, where Stracuzzi (“Tell ’em Angelo Sent You”) ruled for so many years. Many […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, April 9, 2012) — Not long ago, we told you about the machinations the city of Pittsfield put Ken Ramsdell through when it came to getting a permit to … to what, square the circle? to build a time machine on Park Square? […]
