Planet Valenti

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, JULY 2, 2013) — THE PLANET has the smartest readers. Yesterday, the ever-observant Prof. Trzcinka commented that we have more fun with theater reviews than reviewing the dire theatricality of municipal budgets. That’s why the economics department at Indiana University pays Prof. T […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI Arts and Entertainment (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, JULY 1, 2013) — Half the year is shot, and though the July breeze sighs of summer, it is “winter” yet in the Berkshires, and, like the past two, a rather warm one. Check that. This one is positively hot. The Berkshire Theater […]

BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 2013) — These past few months, THE PLANET has watched with great interest and approval the new style of Pope Francis, a man we can call “militantly humble.” While cutting the regal papacy down several notches, he has elevated a new […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 2013) — With your kind indulgence, one more day, please, then a day or two of rest before we bring THE PLANET  closer to its familiar orbit, likely by the end of the week or the start of next. Today, let me share some […]

By DAN VALENTI Funeral services for Peter Thomas Valenti McGuire will be Monday, June 24, 10 a.m. at St. Charles Church. Burial will follow in St. Joseph’s Cemetery. Calling hours will be Sunday, 4 to 7 p.m. at Dery Funeral Home, 54 Bradford St., Pittsfield. I will be there, still shaken, no doubt, but proud to stand steady […]

There’s not much to say at this point about the last several days as I investigate more of the back story surrounding the death of my brother, Peter T. McGuire. I’m not ready to write a tribute yet and won’t know when I shall be ready “until I know.” I’m in a kind of phantom […]

My Dear Readers: There will be no fresh content today on THE PLANET (at least today and perhaps longer). We received terrible news on Saturday. Our brother Peter died suddenly at home on Friday. I ask for your kind indulgence in the interim. Thanks for your understanding. I thank all those who have contacted me, on […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 2013) — THE PLANET has learned that on Thursday, June 6, Boring Broadsheet (a newspaper formerly known as The Berkshire Eagle) editor Tim Farkas was “marched out of the building.” Farkas had been terminated. It’s not clear if he was fired, […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary “I am not here [in Hong Kong] to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality” — Edward Snowden (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2013) — There is no overstating the implications of Edward Snowden‘s heroic revelations, at great personal cost, of the massive spying […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” – Ben Franklin 1759 (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2013) — We temporarily leave aside racial profiling (Doreen Wade spoke at the city council’s open mic session; she […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2013) — In our dissection of the school department budget process [see Friday’s PLANET], we presented this quote from and THE PLANET‘s analysis of Pittsfield’s outgoing interim school supt. Gordon Noseworthy: Noseworthy spoke the usual inane bromides in discussing the budget: […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 2013) — If you are lucky enough to have a job, do you routinely go to your boss every year, demand raises between 4 and 10%, expect to get it, and then threaten dire consequences if you don’t? Likely not. If […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013) — We finally step away from Wadegate to bring you this head puzzler, in the form of a photo. We ask: What’s wrong with this picture? This photo was sent to us by one of our correspondents under the title […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2013) — Doreen Wade, the black Medford businesswoman who, after meeting twice with Pittsfield Mayor Dan Bianchi (April 3 and 29) accused the mayor of racism, tells THE PLANET she intends to speak before the city council on Tuesday, June 11. […]

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2013) — Wadegate, the racially sensitive and explosive “she-said/he-said” involving black Medford businesswoman Doreen Wade and Pittsfield Mayor Dan Bianchi has still many unexplored subthemes. First, however, let’s clear the air on one thing: THE PLANET does not for one second […]

By DAN VALENTI (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, JUNE 3, 2013) — Typically, the weekend lull works its way onto THE PLANET, because readers know that, in all likelihood, there will be no fresh content. Oh, a breaking story or a news flash will get us writing on the weekend, but more often than not, we […]