BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY AUG. 5, 2019) — Pop-pop-pop-pop-poppoppopopopop. Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thumpthumpthumpthump. And just like that, in just 12 hours and an action-time of maybe five minutes in the United States of Amnesia, 29 innocent people were gunned down and 52 shot and wounded. Pop, pop … fizz, fizz […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, AUG. 2-4, 2019) — A formal welcome to August and the weekend. THE PLANET‘s review of a play’s out-of-state production was served, as most readers realized, with the “comments” feature suspended. This produced several reactions, mostly good, with several contacting us […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (ED. NOTE: For this column, THE PLANET is suspending comments for obvious reasons. This review of Damn Yankees is not for a local staging but for a production now under way in Syracuse, N.Y., where, incidentally, this site has gathered a following. Our normal comment component returns […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 29, 2019) — THE PLANET steps aside today for this guest column from John McWhorter. We occasionally publish guest columns not because we agree or disagree with the content but because they are reasonably well written and contain arguments pertaining to relevant […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JULY 26-28, 2019) — We open to the weekend by cleaning out some files, including letters sent in that for one reason or another weren’t used — the Sophie Tucker dilemma: So much to do, so little time to do it […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JULY 24, 2019) — Given the campaign inactivity thus far, several have been asking THE PLANET if November’s mayoral election is too early to call in favor of Tyer. Short answer: A qualified yes, which we shall expound upon in a future column. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 22, 2019) — He’s a racist, she’s a racist, all God’s chillen’ be racist. That does seem to be the most presently fashionable epithet, a form of political upchucking. Let’s see. Alexandria Occasional-Cortex (D-Lipstick) says Nancy Pelosi is a racist. Nancy Pelosi […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JULY 19-21, 2019) — The Town of Lanesboro expressed relief after the sale of the Berkshire Mall. The new owner, Durga Property Holdings, paid back taxes owed by previous owner Mehan Kohanesieh. Win-Win-Win, right? Possibly, and we hope so, but looking […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JULY 17, 2019) — Let’s see. There’s Spud Chandler, former flinger for the New York Yankees; Albert “Happy” Chandler, former commissioner of baseball; Gene Chandler, the Duke of Earl; Don Chandler, punter extraordinaire for the New York Football Giants; and Raymond Chandler, writer […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 15, 2019) — Open season during a campaign year falls between early April and late July, when nomination papers can be had for the asking. The meaning of this civic ink-blot test clarifies when papers have to be filed on deadline, determining […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JULY 12-14, 2019) — Time to clean out the notebook. Strike Three — Ball Four created a sensation. Foul Ball described a bag job. The author of those two books, our good friend Jim Bouton, passed away. We met the news with sadness […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JULY 10, 2019) — If you’re a woman and you’ve just got a book published, you might think — as did E. Jean Carroll — that the best way to get some cheapo publicity is to accuse the President of the United States […]
BY DANA VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 8, 2019) — That was some last week in June for the Prez. Not even THE PLANET had it as good. You can already start talking about a legacy for President Donald Trump. Talk about a winning week. First, 20 of the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JULY 5-7, 2019) — Russian president Vladimir Putin, the best politician on the planet (to say nothing of THE PLANET), showed why again at the G-20, sharing his analysis for the fate of liberalism in the west. From there, he made […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JULY 3, 2019) — They couldn’t fit on one stage, so 20 of the 24 trying to win the Democrat Party’s nomination for president found themselves on two stages, two consecutive nights. THE PLANET‘s first question concerns timing. We’re eight months before the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 1, 2019) — Until the late 1830s, daily newspapers were too expensive to build mass circulation. The Sun, New York City’s largest paper, for instance, had a circulation of about 2,600 and sold for six cents (source: The Atlantic), a prohibitive cost […]
