BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016) — Carl Michael Yastrzemski. The Man Called Yaz. Number 8. This is the ballplayer who authored what is considered the greatest all-around season in MLB history. We speak, of course, of Yaz’s exploits with the bat and glove in the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2016) — Pittsfield School Committee chair Kathy “Lady Boots” Yon and her group had it. School superintendent Jason “Jake” JIV McCandless and his team had it. School Building Needs Committee co-chair Kathy Amuso and the clan had it. So did the mayor, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, MARCH 7, 2016) — It made for a deceptively good headline: “Jobs Report Shows Brisk U.S. Hiring in February” (NY Times). The mainstream media across the country gobbled it up, spoon-fed. The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) comes from the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, MARCH 4-6, 2016) — “These are a few of my favorite things” — a great song memorably sung by Julie Andrews in My Fair Poppins Mary Lady. Snowflakes on eyelashes, kittens and mittens: You know the deal. Here area few of THE […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2016) — The dominant theme in the wake of Donald Trump’s ascendancy has been the panicked reaction of a flummoxed the Republican Establishment, whose plans went awry when Jeb Bush proved about as dynamic as a piece of wet cardboard. The GOP […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016) — Ta-Da! Today is THE PLANET‘s 1,400th column since Oct. 1, 2010. You say you were beating up a convict who was trying to date your daughter and as a result missed what happened on Super Tuesday? Fear not. THE […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016) — Welcome to March. In like a Hillary, out like a Trump. Since Pittsfield state rep. Triscuit Faraway Tralalla Boomdier has dragged THE PLANET into it, we have no choice but to return fire. This past weekend in the mainstream […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, FEB. 26-28, 2016) — It wasn’t published here first but in The Boston Globe. Nonetheless, thanks to our vast spy ring, we got it before anyone else locally. The house race in Pittsfield just got more interesting. Here’s how our Globe […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, FEB. 25, 2016) — The editorial “he” and other masculine pronouns have the Pittsfield City Council in a tither. Nice to see them worrying about important things rather than trivialities such as the ruinous amounts of money annually wasted by a top-heavy, underperforming […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY Second of Two Parts (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, FEB. 24, 2016) — In Pittsfield, Shannon Grant money is used on children 10 to 20 years old. The city has 44 kids enrolled in a program called Pittsfield Community Connections (PCC) — another program with a catchy nickname, another few […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY First of Two Parts (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, FEB. 23, 2016) — Has anyone asked tough questions about the now-rote assignation of grant money by the state to Pittsfield? Mayor Sara Hathaway was the first to openly admit the city’s unhealthy dependence on state welfare for its […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, FEB. 22, 2016) — When it snows, you can see the footprints of the patrons of Lach’s Lounge walking more or less in neat, orderly paths. Check out those footprints hours later, and you will see a zig-zag worthy of cigarette paper. The […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, FEB. 19-21, 2016) — Allow THE PLANET to empty the notebook with another fearless edition of Qwik Hitz and Hot Lix. Separated at birth: Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels and Don Knotts, a.k.a. Barney Fife, deputy sheriff of Mayberry, N.C. Prediction: […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, FEB. 18, 2016) — You’ll recall how strongly Dan Bianchi campaigned for his first term on “transparency.” THE PLANET doesn’t have to remind how that turned out. Thus far, however, Linda Tyer has proven the opposite. While mentioning government openness in her campaign, it […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, FEB. 17-II, 2016) — For technical reasons not worth explaining here, today’s column was listed as a Sunday, Feb. 14 publication. Here is is today, where it was meant to slot. BLACK HOLES COLLIDE, ‘INVASION,’ AND ‘THE CATHOLIC MIRROR: A CONVERGENCE BY DAN […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, FEB. 16, 2016) — Not long ago, our Right Honorable but myopic Friends on the city council tripped over the Pittsfield School Department in its hunt to cut costs and landed onto the Pittsfield Municipal Airport (PMA). Pity, since the PSD awaits like the […]
