BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JULY 20-22, 2018) — When you operate a site such as this one, after a while the news comes to you. Each happening, civic joy or shame, crime, or subterfuge possesses a cast of characters. No matter how hidden, someone always […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JULY 18, 2018) — Making sense of the stillborn race for District Attorney is rather like explaining Russia: No matter what you say about it is true. Even if it’s false, it will somehow be true. THE PLANET calls the race “stillborn” because it […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 16, 2018) — The events may be a cuppla-three weeks old, with Wifegate deserving of more attention on THE PLANET, but duty bids comment on an annual duo of delight that its perpetuators insist on continuing. Recently, the Dalton Lions Club hosted […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE-ESSEX, THURSDAY AND THE WEEKEND, JULY 12-15, 2018) — The blueberries on the farm are the biggest and sweetest they’ve been in years. It’s the pollination from the hives. The plantain and mint have been superb, and the first tomato tasted — in the words […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 9 & BEYOND, 2018) — As THE PLANET continues out summer hiatus (the bees are particularly needy at this time but the honey … oh, mercy … the honey is out of and around the world), we open up a new commentary […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FOURTH OF JULY ETC., 2018) — In honor of the 4th, THE PLANET will take and enjoy a brief hiatus. In Vegas, they call it “going dark.” Check back Monday to see if we’ve taken down the “Gone Fishin’” sign or if we’ve decided […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 2, 2018) — This is THE PLANET‘s 1,800th column since we began in late September-early October of 2010. We saved it for something, and someone, special. The week before last, THE PLANET was honored to accept an invitation from our Right Honorable Good Friend […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, JUNE 29-JULY 1, 2018) — Our good friends in local culture love them, especially the theaters (Berkshire Theatre Group, Shakespeare and Co., Barrington Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival), Tanglewood, the Norman Rockwell Museum, and the like). THE PLANET does too, especially when […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JUNE 27, 2018) — “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.” So wrote Robert Louis Stevenson, author of one of THE PLANET‘s favorite books from a childhood full of them. We speak of Treasure Island. Stevenson’s aphorism works so profoundly that when the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JUNE 25, 2018) — Finding patches of scribbles in THE PLANET‘s notebook, we look to make another quilt. Hasta La Vista, Baby! — President Trump did the right thing by doing what he first said he could not do when he signed an […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JUNE 20, 2018) — Trump spied on Clinton. Hillary spied on Donald. Every campaign does it, and that we remain surprised or interested might be the biggest surprise of all. That makes laughable the current, money-wasting probes into the Trump-Russia connection and the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JUNE 20, 2018) — Now that we know what kind of politician Donna Todd Rivers is, the only question remaining if you want her vote is the price. When Rivers flipped her vote and decided to stick Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski with […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JUNE 17, 2018) — Contempt should only be spent on someone you take seriously. For the lightweights, pick from among ridicule, mockery, and flicking of the kind you do to an insect — three forms of abuse that cozily fit under the heading […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JUNE 15-17, 2018) — Last week THE PLANET enjoyed morning coffee at a well-known local coffee house. We asked for “a cup of coffee.” Are we ever going to learn? It used to be you went into a diner or sat behind […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JUNE 13, 2018) — From the instant of the Clasp, the Summit de tutti Summi has exceeded all expectations. THE PLANET finds it incredible that President Donald Trump and DPRNK leader Kim Jung Un have pulled off the unpullable, even though many ideologues refuse to […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JUNE 11, 2018) — They have arrived. Early. Folks, we have unfolding a breathtaking moment. Someone, apparently, not only thought but actualized the unthinkable. Slam the two major participants in what is the most historic diplomatic outing since 1950 if you insist, but […]
