BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY First of Two Parts (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY Jan. 4, 2021) — THE PLANET recently heard from former city council president and mayoral candidate Melissa Mazzeo regarding the COVID-19 outbreak that involved several Pittsfield restaurants. Mazzeo and husband Tony own Mazzeo’s restaurant Restaurant at the former Yellow […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, JAN. 2-4, 2021) — As we transitioned from last year to this, THE PLANET heard a lot of talk about what a bad year it’s been. And yes it has, if that’s the object of your focus. Our gaze, as we […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY DEC. 30, 2020) — It is fitting that THE PLANET‘s final post for this miserable year should wear the capstone of honor. We say that because in life, we must learn to honor all experience, up or down, good or bad. And today, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY DEC. 28, 2020) THE PLANET closes out both the week and the year with Honors and Award Week (HAW). The highlights will be naming the winner of our Coveted Orbit Award — plus two introduction of two new honors!! Over the years, the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION @ CHRISTMAS, DEC. 25-7, 2020) — Our message today is simple: Merry Christmas to all who have made THE PLANET the area’s most popular, most hit upon site. It’s not only for the content we and our secret Squadron relentlessly and […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY DEC. 23, 2020) — Question of the Day: “Why does the local chapter of the NAACP have a place on the search committee charged with finding the new person to head the Pittsfield Public School System?” THE PLANET wishes it could provide a […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY DEC. 21, 2020) — As the last day of fall becomes the first day of winter, THE PLANET muses about a story that will have as much impact on Pittsfield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and America as the calamities of the city council, the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION DEC. 18-20, 2020) — Lost in the panic over snow and the hours of snow plows — Imagine! SNOW! In the Berkshires! In mid-December! — just another vibrant, dynamic time in Pittsfield. Submitted for your approval, as Rod Serling used to […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY DEC. 16, 2020) — Time for THE PLANET to clean out the notebook. In Orbit — Nominees so far for THE PLANET‘s Coveted Orbit Award (COA) are Chuck Garivaltis, Tony Maffuccio, Dina Lampiasi, and Chris Connell. We will take COA nominees until the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY DEC. 14, 2020) — THE PLANET opens with a call for nominations. Who should win our coveted Orbit Award? This annual prize acknowledges a person for no other reason than acknowledging the person. It is the ultimate Kantian ding an sich, PLANET style, our […]
BY PLANET VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY 2nd of 2 Parts (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION DEC. 11-3, 2020) — Another day, another four new deaths. Easy come, easy go. That’s the situation at Hillcrest Commons, the deadliest piece of real estate in Berkshire County. In this “second wave” of COVID-19, 33 Pittsfield […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY First of 2 Parts (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY DEC. 9, 2020) — “Getting well never felt better.” So reads the slogan that proudly tops the Hillcrest Commons Nursing Homes’ website beneath the colorful slide show of happy, photogenic patients and staff. Yes, Hillcrest seems to be the place […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY DEC. 7, 2020) — Today, THE PLANET somberly notes, is the “day that will live in infamy”+ 28,855. That many days have passed since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dc. 7, 1941, a day Franklin Roosevelt and the military got what they […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION DEC. 4-6, 2020) — Tuesday’s dramatic intervention at city hall by a coalition of Pittsfield restaurant owners did the trick. On Wednesday, the city’s Board of Health reversed itself to allow indoor dining to resume. City eateries have been shut down […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY DEC. 2, 2020) — THE PLANET‘s expose on The Berkshire Eagle spiking reporter Heather Bellow’s follow-up story on D.A. Andrea Harrington’s vehicular woes has opened up one of the floodgates, and we have heard much more from newspaper sources. We present the comments […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY NOV. 30, 2020) — Even when Berkshire County district attorney Andrea Harrington advocates for a much-needed adjustment of courtroom policy, she manages to taint the corrective with self-serving politics. As she herself unwittingly reveals, she’s “acting.” Case in point, Harrington’s Nov. 18 letter […]
