BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY First in a Two-Part Series (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 29, 2021) — There’s a clan war going on between some residents of the Shacktown section on upper Holmes Road and the city of Pittsfield over a now-built and running cell phone tower there. In 2017 Verizon petitioned […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 26-8, 2021) — A few items to clear off the desk this Madness weekend, and then THE PLANET turns to discussion over to you. NEIGHBORS NOT BUYING CELL TOWER — On upper Holmes Road, technically in the 800 block of […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 24, 2021) — USA Today recently ran a story on cities that should fare well and poorly after the COVID-19 pandemic retires. The article asks what will happen to workforces when more companies continue or initiate the option of working at home? Where […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 22, 2021) — Spring has sprung, and with that, THE PLANET presents the flowering of the COVID vaccination debate, what we call “The Vaccinated Chronicles.” Of course, this would be unnecessary if Pittsfield were run by competent, honest officials. But alas … […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 19-21, 2021) — Somehow, Bay Staters knew that when it came to COVID vaccinations, Massachusetts — the purported world leader in health care, with its vaunted medical centers — would blow it. As soon as politicians got involved, those in […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, ST. PATRICK’S DAY, 2021) — Shocking news. Investigators have actually found a woman who does not claim she was sexually harassed by New York Gov. Andrew “Born on Third” Cuomo. Stop the presses! Press the stoppers! Call the roller of fat cigars! Erin, go braless. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 15, 2021) — To paraphrase Andy Griffith, “What it was was baseball.” What it is is something unrecognizable. Major League Baseball continues to destroy the game that became The National Pastime and has now become the National Passgas. Not content with dumb […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 12-14, 2021) — The floodgates have yet to open on the Moon v. Harrington damned dam, but there have been considerable leaks. THE PLANET has received information from both camps. They are obviously jockeying for position if and when an […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 10, 2021) — Berkshire County D.A. Andrea Harrington’s flack says Helen Moon, the office’s former director of special projects, demanded $150,000 in hush money to keep quiet about what she knows of the inner workings of the county’s top criminal-justice office. Moon […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 8, 2021) — There’s a crisis at the nation’s southern border, Uncle Sam’s “leaders” just released an unaffordable $1.9 trillion freebie, and a full Moon over Harrington has eclipsed the any remaining semblances of semblance at the D.A.’s office. It ironic that […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 5-7, 2021) — THE PLANET has been on this earth for 14 U.S. presidents and 15 Pittsfield mayors. How do we discuss so many? The question was put to us recently at a small gathering of a secret society meeting […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 3, 2021) — Spend. That’s the word on THE PLANET today. Spend spend spend. Spend, spend, spend, spend. spendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspend. In 2020, the federal government spent $4 trillion to provide economic relief from the hardships caused by the COVID-19 virus. This year, a […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, DATE, 2021) — While the dynamic, inclusive, diverse vibrancy of Pittsfield continues to dazzle your senses and the B.S. continues like sausage-making from the Tyer Administration about the wonder of it all, THE PLANET thought you might be interested in a more objective, third-party […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION FEB. 26-28, 2021) — In our previous column, THE PLANET presented a hot link to the statement of the Pittsfield Police Advisory Review Board (PARB). In it, the board announced it signed on to the state’s new regulations regarding policing with […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY Part 1 of 2 (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEST, WEDNESDAY FEB. 24, 2021) — You may have missed it while you were in hospital for removal of tire tracks on your backside from the Tyer Administration’s bond-refinancing bus that ran over you (see THE PLANET‘s previous column). The […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEST, MONDAY FEB. 22, 2021) — “History repeats itself,” observed that noted vaudevillian comic, Karl Marx. “The first time is tragedy. The second time is farce.” Here’s are a few more profundities: “Injuns? Why there’s no injuns in these parts” — Gen. George Armstrong […]
