BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION APRIL 12-14, 2019) — A shocking assault on freedom or a stalwart action for justice? THE PLANET says the first. Ecuador’s decision to hand over Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to British authorities violates precious First Amendment freedoms. Secretary of State Mike […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY APRIL 10, 2019) — Some of our readers and correspondents have noted that when they post, the comments sometimes do not immediately show up on THE PLANET. Remain calm. All is well. No need to post more than once. The actions are part […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY APRIL 8, 2019) — It’s “the idiot tax.” It’s a self-imposed financial hit for those who can’t do math. It’s the ultimate sucker bet. It’s the Massachusetts State Lottery or any state lottery. Do you play it? Do you pay it? If you […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION APRIL 5-7, 2019) — As a long-time philologist interested in comparative language, particularly as it pertains to English, a recent reference in the comment section of this board caught THE PLANET‘s attention. The writer, discussing Joe Biden, said he had been […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY APRIL 3, 2019) — Back in the day, we had “Ban the Bomb.” Today, liberal lightweights have “Ban the Bag.” And so it came to pass that Pittsfield’s City Council culminated six years of intensive effort to make life more difficult for Mary […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY APRIL 1, 2019) — This is no April Fool’s Joke, though it be April with the city abounding in fools of both garden and weed variety. Hard to believe, it’s campaign season again, not quite full swing but getting there soon. Today, we […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ADD 1, 3/31/19 — Around 1:30 a.m, a motorist driving east on Dalton Avenue just east of Plastics Avenue struck and killed a pedestrian and drove off. The vehicle is believed to be a tan or light-colored Ford SUV. It will have heavy front-end damage. It left […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 27, 2019) — Today, THE PLANET offers quartet valediction of both hail and farewell. ED REILLY — We first met Ed in the mid-60s at his parent’s variety store. We would stop there on our way to Wahconah Park for Red Sox games. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 25, 2019) — Before our regular column, allow THE PLANET to pay a tribute to former mayor Ed Reilly, whose passing came as sad news to all who knew and loved him. We had many encounters with Ed, going back to our youth […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ———- ooo ———- ADD 3, MARCH 22, 2019 — ‘Twas not to be for the Syracuse men’s basketball team in the first round of March Madness in Salt Lake City. That game was lost before the first tipoff, when word came of senior center Frank Howard testing […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 15-17, 2019) — Wither, PEDA? Or perhaps THE PLANET can better phrase it as a declarative sentence: Whither, PEDA. “Whither, vb 1: to shrivel; 2 to lose or cause to lose or cause to lose vitality, force, or freshness” (Webster’s […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 13, 2016) — With current poverty levels, high welfare incidence, and the public treasury open for the “gimme groups,” Pittsfield has long been operating under a socialist system. It may be called something else, but “a rose by any other name” … […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 11, 2019) — Will he run? Will she run? Two simple questions with complicated answers. “He” is Joe Biden and the 2020 presidential election. “She” is Melissa Mazzeo as she considers a run for mayor. For both, the time might be right, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 8-10, 2019) — Last week, The Wall Street Journal ran a weekend column by Lance Morrow. Morrow used the case of Jessie Smollet to identify something he called “a self-sentimentalizing narrative of persecuted innocence.” He said “Smollet’s story was even […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 6, 2019) — On Feb. 1, President Donald Trump pulled America out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), a deal that has been in place since 1987. In June, Trump announced the creation of a U.S. Space Force. Both have had […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 4, 2019) — Apropos of nothing but dipping from everything: Rico — Watching Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen, it occurred to THE PLANET that he looked and sounded like former Red Sox shortstop-3b Rico Petrocelli if you took about 25 years off […]
