Planet Valenti

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 2014) — With patience comes reward, and we who have endured this winter can rejoice in the coming of official spring — a leaping tongue of green bloom the calendar has kindly advanced — so that we all may move forward, […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 2014) — Pittsfield Public Schools has a zero-tolerance policy on bullying. There also are intelligent microbe-sized beings living under a manhole cover in the 150 block of North Street. These two propositions, the first true and the second unfalsifiable, have about […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 2014) — Saint Patty gets all the ink, but St. Joe did all the heavy lifting for being a father to Jesus, and with that, we wish you all a pleasant St. Joseph’s feast day. Incidentally, St. Patrick drove the snakes […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 2014) — When the bartender calls the cops in to break up a riot at one of the many dives in town, THE PLANET excuses the yawns that follow. It’s like seeing a Level III sex offender walking free in the […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY,MARCH 17, 2014) — On this St. Patrick’s Day, THE PLANET hopes it has spurred enough of a discussion on the vampiric effects a plethora of “non-profit” and “not-for-profit” commercial enterprises have had, are having, and will continue to have if left unchecked on the […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary A PROGRAM NOTE: THE PLANET WILL BE JOHN KROL’S GUEST FRIDAY MORNING FOR THE HOUR, ON “GOOD MORNING, PITTSFIELD.” WTBR-FM AND SIMULCAST ON PCTV. THAT INTERVIEW IS AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING ON THE PCTV WEBSITE. FOR RE-BROADCAST ON TV, CHECK THE PCTV LISTINGS.  (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2014) — When THE PLANET exposed what was done in the secrecy of proverbial midnight, under the shadow of the piers — no scorning suspensions, no shining in the sun — at 71 Stonehenge Road, we ignited a firestorm of protest […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014) — THE PLANET has just finished watching the entirety of Vladimir Putin‘s March 4 press conference on the Ukraine crisis. He spoke for more than an hour before an assembly of what looked like about 30 media. Unlike the U.S. […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2014) — THE PLANET has learned that the $2 million that Pittsfield Supt. Jason “Jake” McCandless has taken the $2 million for new hiring off the table.  McCandless will not ask for the millions for the upcoming FY15. With a million […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014) — Despite the fact that the population of city schools has dropped from more than 12,000 to just under 6,000 … despite the fact that the administrative staff has more than quadrupled. Despite the fact that there are […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2014) — Little by little, over many years, the salaries and retirement benefits of San Bernardino’s city workers — and especially its police and firemen — grew richer and richer, even as the city lost its major employers and gradually got poorer […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, ASH WEDNESDAY, March 5, 2014) — When Petula Clark had her hit “Downtown” in 1965, the year we discovered hamburgers, she obviously wan’t warbling with a psychic’s grasp of the future, particularly the future of Downtown Pittsfield. The place we used to call “Upstreet” […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014) — On this Mardi Gras, we hear from four legislators regarding the plan to move a group home to 71 Stonehenge Drive. As you probably know, THE PLANET broke the story and followed up on it yesterday. Think it’s a […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2014) — The mystery of Stonehenge deepens. Following up on our exclusive on the group home moving into 71 Stonehedge Road in Pittsfield, the questions must be asked: 1. Why there, of all places? 2. Why was it done so quietly? […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, FRIDAY, FEB. 28, 2014) — For eons, England’s Stonehenge has fascinated people with its mystery. What do the large stones mean? Beginning today, Pittsfield’s Stonehenge will emerge as its own mystery — not one as enduring at the English riddle, granted, but […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, FEB. 27, 2014) — Time for another round of Qwik Hitz and Hot Lix, our variety show of disparate items related in odd ways that together offer determined though feeble responses to the age-old question, “What’s the Use?” The assortment of potpourri comes […]