By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, MARCH 13-15, 2015) — THE PLANET‘s recent coverage of potential mayoral candidates has stirred up Campaign ’15 out of its sleep and into the slumber stage. The awakening will continued to May 1, when the alarm goes off signifying the true beginning […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015) — THE PLANET, and THE PLANET alone, reported on the damage done to the roof at Taconic High School last week when the city hired the sheriff’s department to clear the school’s roof of snow. They brought in two guards […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015) — The campaign season is scarce upon us with ever-growing speculation about the fate of the corner office. As you all know only too well, since January 2010 the mayor’s office has been in the hands of a former Ward […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2015) — The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre occurred in Pittsfield when a snowstorm blew in and the city “brain trust” did nothing to prepare or treat the roads. They were barely plowed. The roads, that is. 70 Accidents, Two Days = […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015) ANNIVERSARY Anniversary, a festive word Not so far removed From “adversity,” As three score and 10 has proved. Yet willing to love they are, Willing to move, to give, Wanting to help, to heal, Leading each other to life, to […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary BREAKING NEWS! — THE PLANET received word shortly after 4 p.m. Friday, the end of the city’s work day, that city accountant Ben Wax resigned. We don’t know if this was unexpected or benign, forced or of choice. Resignations occur, of course, but there’s heightened interest when […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2015) — Time to empty out THE PLANET Mail Bag. These are messages (mostly e-mails) that have come into THE PLANET and that have yet to be published. Here goes: ‘For Crying Out Loud’ (or Softly, for that Matter) TO THE […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2015) — Quick Hitz & Hot Lix comes to you today, brought to you by nothing and no one, which is just how we like it, Unbought and Unbossed. THE PLANET remains the purest medium around, untouched by commercial taint. With so […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2015) — There has been much made, and rightly so, of the spectacular economic growth in the East, in Asia, and in the Pacific Rim countries. Capital in the Twenty-First Century, a new book by Thomas Piketty, professor at the Paris School […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2015) — Welcome to March, which comes in like a aardvark and goes out like an orangutan. Welcome to March, a scant two months from the day nomination papers become available at the city clerk’s office for public office in the […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, FEB. 27-MARCH 1, 2015) — As we inch ever closer to spring, we approach a time when the snows of yesterday shall be forgotten. Winter, which Mayor Daniel Bumstead thinks happens once every 50 years in The Berkshires, shall be consigned to […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, FEB. 26, 2015) — We had intended for you to join us tonight as we presented another live, in-real-time, fearless edition of PLANET VALENTI TELEVISION. PV-TV normally commences at 7 p.m. and runs the hour, broadcast from the studios of PCTV on Time Warner […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, FEB. 25, 2015) — For those interested in such things, the large, angry bull mistaken by city Highway Department director Kevin Swail (rhymes with “fail”) for The Big Red Magic Pothole Machine won an honorary Oscar the other night in the new category: […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, FEB. 24, 2015) — With the impending lunar surface that comprises the mileage of Pittsfield roads, side streets, and byways about to get more pothole ravaged with March looming, THE PLANET has heard you. Unlike the buffoons running city government, THE PLANET cares about […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, FEB. 23, 2015) — There has been speculation culminating in a warning about the recent uproar over poor performance by Pittsfield’s Public Services Department led by commissioner Bruce “Colon” Collingwood and Highway Division head Kevin Swail (rhymes with “fail.”). The line of thinking warns citizens not […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary ——– 000 ——– THE PLANET will let this column suffice for THE WEEKEND EDITION. The information about Snowgate will be allowed to simmer in advance of the city council meeting, where and when, if our Right Honorable Good Friends do their job, citizens and taxpayers will get […]
