BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION Sept. 1-3, 2017) — THE PLANET continues our grading of Pittsfield’s political cadre, today focusing on councilors at-large and the mayor. Before The Old Professor inroduces the politicians to their well-deserved destinies, allow one observation on the state of city politics. There are many forms of absolute […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANTVALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY AUG. 30, 2017) — Late August reminds us of the fleeting nature of things. People, places, and plants exist for the flash but in the next moment fade into the blessed, hibernative oblivion from whence they all came. Life begins to pull back, the energies flowing to […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY AUG. 28, 2017) — Last Christmas season, as you may recall, the city of Pittsfield draped each new parking kiosk with a red or green plastic hood. The city pretended that Santa Claus visited, but we all know there isn’t a Santa. There […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION AUG. 25-27, 2017) — With both houses of Congress on “sleep mode” — out of town allegedly taking care of (ahem) “constituent business,” a euphemism meaning that the crooks are looking out for their own disgusting skins — the halls of […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY AUG. 23, 2017) — As a group and in the whole, the Pittsfield City Council has been an Enemy of the People going back to the early 1980s. That time, now a universe far away and long ago, saw the city in the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY AUG. 21, 2017) — The solar eclipse? Been there, done that. THE PLANET has seen them come and go, and — while they are of marginal interest as celestial occurrences — they fail to ignite much interest beyond that. Don’t get us wrong. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, AUG. 18-20, 1967) — Fifty years ago today (Aug. 18, 1967), one of major league baseball’s greatest tragedies occurred at Fenway Park in Boston. It came when a pitch from California Angels’ Jack Hamilton smacked into Tony Conigliaro‘s face near his […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY AUG. 16, 2017) — It is democracy’s sad adjunct to give citizens the illusion of control. This comforting fiction arrives tidally, a strong impulse toward self-governance moved by the inherent gravitational pull of freedom. Drawn up on the flipchart, it sounds good. Reality shows otherwise. […]
BY DANVALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY AUG. 14, 2017) — For what it’s worth … … As of September 2016, neither Patrick Muraca of bio-nano infamy nor his girlfriend-cum-fiancee Darleen Zradi, the foul-mouthed Facebook femme futile, were registered to vote. It is not a federal crime, of course, to brush off […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, AUG. 11-13, 2017) — Nearly every analyst, expert, and authority that weighs in on current developments split-side of the 38th parallel at the Korean peninsula either begins or ends by saying the United States has no good options. THE PLANET disagrees. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY AUG. 9, 2017) — Corporate rates hikes, whether millimetrical or magnitudinal, always rankle the rank and file. That occurs with good reason, especially when the increase coincides with a loss or degradation of service. Case in point, the recent switch in local cable […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY AUG. 7, 2017) — Here are a few left-over items from the Infamous case of “Dr.” Muraca and Mr. Hide. The case is far from over. In fact, its an infant. The best is yet to come. The film rights to this incredible […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, AUG. 4-6, 2017) — The Feds in Massachusetts aren’t the only ones to have a determined interest in Patrick Muraca of Nuclea etc. infamy. New York’s FBI also has come-a-callin’. THE PLANET hopes the cigars Uncle Sam says he billed to hoodwinked investors […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY AUG. 3, 2017) — Vin Herbert Boulevard is named after one of Pittsfield’s great men, a man who epitomized public service in the same fashion as men like Chuck Garivaltis, Don Gleason, and a host of others. On Vin Herbert Boulevard a couple days […]
