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 “deal” with AG Maura Healey allows its board to hang out the “Gone Fishin'” sign, freed from its major responsibility of fund-raising to provide operating funds and endowment money.

The institution’s board proved inept at raising capital, but it sure could spend money, ringing up more than $11 million in debt over the past decade in its transformation of the facility from a revered sanctuary of art and natural science into a plasticized Chuck E. Cheese. Ask yourself: What self-respecting directors run a business into the ground for a decade then “go Judas” for “30 pieces of silver” to cover their bumbling?

Sleezy.

THE PLANET asks what you all have been asking, a question that has not only been not sufficiently explained but one that, when you ask it for the record, has informed sources turning “D&D” — that’s street talk for “deaf and dumb.” Yes, the red flag went up on Healey’s 11th-hour deal that lets go “Shuffleton’s Barber Shop” and dozens of the museum’s most valuable works but skins the citizens of Berkshire County with a razor stropped on back of thousand-dollar bills. It’s funny, though, how typically loquacious sources talk big off the record but shrink when you want to use their attributed wisdom. They expect the turnip-truck investigative journalist to take all the credit — and heat.

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According to one statehouse source, the deal is “a classic quid pro quo.” That’a Latin for “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours, and we’ll both stab Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski in the back.” If true, it would help explain the last-second reversal from the AG, a triple-axle spin in morality akin to a school superintendent coming out in favor of child porn.

The deal allows the museum to raise $55 million from the sale of art. It would use the licitly illicit money for operating and endowment costs. Moreover, it conveniently excuses the museum’s incompetent directors from doing their job of legitimate fundraising while at the same time expunging a decade-long record of financial double-dealing and fiduciary depravity. Does the money include a laundered “finder’s fee” that might find its circuitous way into the fund-raising efforts of prominent political animals? THE PLANET cannot say. We have only learned, through the years, to QUESTION EVERYTHING.

While we’re in a querying mood, why have Pittsfield mayor Linda Tyer, Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, city councilors, museum employees, and others in the know on rug row been so silent? We also wonder why The Berkshire Eagle suddenly took the starch out of its theretofore good job of getting underneath the glossy veneer of the story? What made it back off in favor of feel-good PR? Did Eagle reporter Larry Parnass become “the man who knew too much?”

Corrupt.

We need not define that. We only wish that the people with knowledge of this deal’s pus would bronze the cowardice of their convictions, preserving them but rendering them unfit for future use.

May all your Rockwells be Normans.

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TIME NOW TO OPEN THE LETTERS BAG.

Here’s one sent to The Boring Broadsheet that The BB refused to publish:

A balanced editorial policy would make The Eagle better.

The letter by Al Diesz on 1/18/18 addresses the extreme bias of Eagle editorial policy. At a recent meeting where Publisher Fredric Rutberg talked about all the changes made to the Eagle I briefly spoke with him after the event. I commended him regarding emphasis on local news, and bringing much of the work in-house and performed by local people. Then I broached the subject of the extreme editorial policy. My purpose was to suggest that a balanced policy would make the paper more interesting (and successful) than the left wing echo chamber it has become.

My goodness! The vehement response surprised me. He claimed that the policy was completely unbiased, and that the numerous left wing syndicated columnists carried by the Eagle were not his responsibility. Funny. I thought that a Publisher was responsible for everything he prints. I can’t believe that Mr. Rutberg is ignorant of the nature of the Eagle. So, it must be his personal opinion, and that he is brazenly using the Eagle to push it.

My cousin who rose to be a renowned judge in Norfolk VA had a favorite saying.

“It’s nice to be a judge. From 9 to 3;30, I’m right.”

Of course the beauty of these words is the unspoken notion that at other times his opinion is no better than that of the common man.

Hey Fred! Your court is not in session.

Ed Dartford
23 East St., Stockbridge.

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Have a great weekend, everybody.

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“Anytime at all. Anytime at all, all you gotta do is call, and I’ll be there” — The Beatles.

“OPEN THW WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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