BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDES, WEDNESDAY FEB. 28, 2018) — THE PLANET thanks the young scholars at Taconic and Pittsfield high schools for winning us a free, fancy coffee. We wagered a friend that the lil’ geniuses who yesterday loaded their diapers on the sidewalks, plaza, and playing fields […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY FEB. 26, 2018) — Resolved: Any student in Pittsfield public schools who leaves class without permission for whatever reason, including a political protest, should be suspended for three days. If the city’s school superintendent, school committee, and mayor care at all about students […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION FEB. 23-25, 2018) — Lazy. Peel to its core the rotten onion of the Berkshire Museum‘s auction of its soul in the form of its best works of art, and you find sloth worthy of its designation as a cardinal sin. The museum’s […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY FEB. 21, 2018) — Common sense would tell you if you ply your brain with an overdose of anything, the experience will begin to take hold. Research into the mind also confirms that repetitive exposure to an intake of an experience produces physical […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY FEB. 19. 2018) — “I was five, and you were six. / We rode on horses made of sticks. … / Bang, bang. You shot me down. / Bang, bang. I hit the ground. / Bang, bang. That awful sound. / Bang, bang, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION FEB. 16-18, 2018) — As an uninterested observer might expect, city council president Peter Marchetti came up small Tuesday night when the problematic water-sewer upgrade came before the august body of Our Right Honorable Good Friends. There are plenty of uninterested […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY FEB. 14, 2014) — First things first. Remember on this day that you can’t spell “Valentine” without “Valenti.” THE PLANET puts it directly to city council president Peter Marchetti: Opportunity knocks. Are you going to answer? On Feb 12, Marchetti received a letter from the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY Third in a Series (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY FEB. 12, 2018) — When the EPA hit Pittsfield with stricter water standards in 2008, the city, to its credit, fought back. There’s some point in the drive for cleaner air, water, and soil that beyond which becomes too […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, FEB. 9-12, 2018) — Let’s keep it simple. Pittsfield’s two rival political machines, The Suits and The Swells, have alternated for more than a generation to drive the city to the brink of ruin. Linda Tyer‘s administration inherited a mess that […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY Part Two of a Series (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY FEB. 7, 2018) — In considering the Administration’s request to further plunge the city’s indebtedness by a mere $80 million, it’s important to note how mayor Linda Tyer first attempted to scuttle a proper procedural process. Prior to […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY First in a Series (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY FEB. 5, 2018) — Congratulations to our Philadelphia Eagles on an exciting Super Bowl win. THE PLANET only wishes we could say the same for the bedraggled citizens of Pittsfield, who face the gauntlet of an ill-conceived and unnecessary multimillion-dollar plan to “upgrade” the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION FEB. 2-4, 2018) — For The Weekend Edition, we get away from Pittsfield’s politics, the kind on full display at a revelatory meeting of the city council’s finance committee over what may well be the last straw that sinks the city […]
