By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, APRIL 2, 2012) — No, we didn’t post on Friday. No, it was not the preemption of an April’s Fool’s stunt. No, we weren’t kidnapped. No, we didn’t “sell out.” No, “they” didn’t “get to me” (whatever that is supposed to mean). No, […]
By DAN VALENTI Planet Valenti News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2012) — Someone told us they opened the Major League baseball season in Japan the other night. It came as news. We don’t follow MLB any more. That admission surprises many people, even to this day. There are still a segment […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 2012) — While we can’t say for sure who will be the next superintendent of schools in Pittsfield, we can say definitively that Christine Canning will not be the Chosen One. THE PLANET has learned that Canning, author of the highly […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2012) — We’re not sorry we haven’t fallen for the Trayvon Martin overreaction. The teenager lost his life, prematurely, and for that we are sorry. We will not, however, join the mindless herd in wanting to turn this unfortunate boy into […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, MARCH 26, 2012) — Every so often, THE PLANET receives an invitation as a local celebrity to sit in judgment of some contest, drive a bus as a promo stunt, flip pancakes, that sort of thing. Each time, we have to stop, take […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012) — Schools, bullying, an unresponsive school department, and a determined mom: How’s that for today’s menu and that of the weekend, in which the Orange advance to the Elite Eight. SCHOOLS: A TALE OF BULLYING THAT AMPLIFIES THE SERIOUS JOKE […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2012) — Yesterday, THE PLANET got a gander at one of the many boards and commissions that serve WE THE PEOPLE in the oft-slovenly but necessary business of city government, in this case, the Pittsfield Parks Commission. We had attended, along […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary PRE-TRIAL CONFERENCE IN NILAN-MOORE CASE POSTPONED TO MAY 2 (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2012) — We were all set to post today’s entry on THE PLANET when we learned that the Nilan-Moore Case pretrial conference, originally slated today in District Court, was postponed to 9 […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 2012) — Having made it through the non-existent “winter,” we can now move to the pursuits of spring, when young men’s fancies turn to dog walks. WE BELIEVE IN DOG The Berkshires’ own Josh Billings put it best: “A dog is […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary ADD 1 MARCH 19, 2012, LATER IN THE DAY * BRIDGE UPDATE — We add this item from the Parks Commission agenda tomorrow night (see main post, below), for those who contacted us today: An update on the Lakeway Drive temporary bridge will be presented. It’s item […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary ADD 1 (MARCH 17, 2012, 2:20 p.m.) SOURCES: ELM STREET ROBBER CAUGHT We break into our regular weekened coverage to report that, according to sources, the woman wanted for a string of robberies in the Elm Street area was arrested and charged this afternoon in Pittsfield. Police […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2012) — “The taxpayers lost big time last night.” That’s how school committeeman Terry Kinnas characterized the action of his colleagues last night in a 5-1 shooting down of his petition to halt the search for a new superintendent until the […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary —–00—– (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012) — Congressional candidate Andrea Nuciforo came out swinging in response to the hatchet job launched against him in a double-barreled shotgun story published on page one Sunday in the Boring Broadsheet. In an e-mail sent to THE PLANET, Nuciforo […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2012) — There’s an old saying in politics that we just made up: “As Guam goes, so goes the nation.” This bodes well for Mitt Romney, candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. He won an overwhelming victory in Guam. He also […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary ——————————————————– FOR SALE: LONGER BLANKETS (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, MARCH 12, 2012) — Having sprung forward into Daylight Savings Time, we still laugh at the concept. By changing the way our human instruments measure the cosmos, we pretend the world has adjusted to us rather than the […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2012) — In the Nilan Moore Case, as most are familiar with, Team Nilan made what on the surface appears to be an incredulous claim at her arraignment. Barrister Tim Shugrue claimed that because key documents have gone missing, the case should be […]
