BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEDNESDAY MAY 2, 2018) — As one of the greatest failures in city history hibernates in amber-encased “lacktivity,” the fiduciary guardians of the public trust continue to ignore disaster. THE PLANET shall explain a bit later on in the column. First, we take note […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEDNESDAY APRIL 30, 2018) — aND nOW fOR sOMETHING tRULY dIFFERENT … (MUSIC UP) (CUE VOICE OVER) Witness if you will a string of observations that spell a riddle. The answer to this puzzle lies in its initials, spelling out a profound truth that […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLIUTUDE THE WEEKEND EDITION APRIL 27-29, 2018) — THE PLANET called the flip-flop of Donna Todd Rivers long before Tuesday night, when she “got religion” and voted to approved borrowing for a $74 million upgrade to the Pittsfield sewer facility. When she first ran for […]
DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEDNESDAY APRIL 25, 2018) — The degrees of separation exist in Pittsfield on a series of membranes so thin as to make manhole covers out of communion wafers. This rarified region occupies a Don Knotts level of thin. Take just about any issue in the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE MONDAY APRIL 23, 2018) — Two meetings set, one for tonight and the other tomorrow, may well determine the economic fate of the city of Pittsfield. The correct vote won’t prevent eventual receivership (assuming the current spending problem is not addressed in municipal budgets), […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION APRIL 20-22, 2018) — Inability to let go of the past freezes a person into a lingering immaturity of perpetual pain, blame, and victimhood. It works that way for nations, too, as well as races. Daily we see this being played […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEDNESDAY APRIL 18, 2018) — While wondering when spring takes off its winter clothing, we present three items on today’s edition of THE PLANET, noting in the process the call for all to avoid catty sniping and the “did-to/did-not” of the sandbox. Keep it as […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE MONDAY APRIL 16, 2018) — Trump blundered. That’s the two-word synopsis of his decision to send 105 missiles against three sites in Syria, a strike responding to Syrian president Assad’s use of chemical weapons. How different from the President’s prior views of the country, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, APRIL 13-18, 2018) — The recent vote of the Pittsfield City Council to defeat the Tyer Administration’s proposal to borrow nearly $80 million to pay for unfunded mandates ordered by the federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the city’s waste […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITYDE WEDNESDAY APRIL 11, 2018) — On this, the 57th anniversary of Carl Yastrzemski’s debut with the Boston Red Sox (1-for-4 off Ray Herbert, a 4-0 extra-inning win), THE PLANET does a tiny bit of housekeeping before we get on to the business of the day. We […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE MONDAY APRIL 9, 2018) — Is it a dogfight or a catfight that has hamstrung the Sonsini Animal Shelter? Since the principals in the battle are women, THE PLANET will go for the latter. Krista Wroldson Miller, chair of the Friends of Sonsini, claims the mayor ended […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY !!UPDATE!! APRIL 6, EVENING — Subsequent to THE PLANET‘s column controversy involving the city’s cancelation of its contract with the Sonsini Animal Shelter, the two principals at the heart of the matter issued statements. Krista Wroldson Miller, chairwoman of the Friends of Sonsini, sent the following memo to city […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY APRIL 4, 2018) — Fifty years ago in the evening, THE PLANET found ourselves on Lyman Street then Deming Park looking for our dog Chubbie, a 14-year-old beagle who had wandered off. We searched for awhile before returning home dejected, only to find her wagging tail […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY APRIL 2, 2018) — Clearing our the junk drawer of a writer’s political notebook: B(R)IC-A-BRAC — One of the least known aspects of the deal that will pour nearly $14 million of taxpayer money into the ill-defined BIC building at the PEDA site […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 30-APRIL 1, 2018) — Time to clean the palette with a bit or rhetorical sorbet, the taste of which shall take us away from the bitter aftertaste of politics gone bad. Our bit of whimsical repast serves up another of […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 28, 2018) — Now that America’s Future has completed its traipse down Good Intentions Road, it’s back to reality. Now what? The march on Washington to “demand action” on gun control fed a lot of egos, captivated the marshmallowed mainstream press, and […]
