BY DANVALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MAY 28-30, 2021) — Allow THE PLANET to paraphrase the late, great Tip O’Neill: All news is local. John Donne told us no man is an island. The great Buddhist monk Thich Nat Hahn shared his notion of Interbeing, which refers to […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MAY 26, 2021) — THE PLANET presents the following announcement from Mayor Linda Tyer: PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City of Pittsfield has added a holiday, Juneteenth, to its roster of municipal holidays. As Juneteenth, which is celebrated on June 19, falls on a […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MAY 24, 2021) — At a time when the city of Pittsfield needs to cut spending as well as taxes, once again it will boost both. Alas, the city has fallen for a social trend that shall prove little more than a fad. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, DATE, 2021) — Do you remember along with THE PLANET with kids’ show on “educational TV” back in the ’70s? The theme song went: C’mon and Zoom. C’mon and Zoom. C’mon and Zoom-zoom-zooma-zoom. It’s not exactly “A Day in the Life.” And yeah, the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MAY 19, 2021) — Biking must be the new pickle ball. How else to explain the peddlers who want to pedal where they want, when they want, and how they want, the public be damned? Maybe you’ve seen them. There are the ones […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MAY 17, 2021) — Now that the COVID pandemic shows signs of finally loosening its grip, at least here in the United States, investigators can begin to trace back its origins. This phase might be as important as the decision made by President […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MAY 14-6, 2021) — Some interesting information came to THE PLANET by a source at the Spectrum methadone clinic 390 Merrill Road, Pittsfield. The company’s facility near Boston treats an average of 200 addicts a day. Care to guess the Pittsfield […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ADD 1 WEDNESDAY 1:04 p.m. — THE PLANET received this announcement from the Pittsfield Police Department: On Monday May 10, 2021 at 2:23 PM, the Pittsfield Police Department received the report of a suspicious motor vehicle in Blue Anchor Park on upper North Street in Pittsfield, adjacent […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MAY 10, 2021) — It takes a lot, and we mean the wagon wheels positively straining through the mud under a tipsy, Everst-sized load of hay, to surprise THE PLANET. Well, congratulations to our Right Honorable Good Friends on the City Council. They […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MAY 7-9, 2021) — Last weekend, THE PLANET queries all 11 members of the Pittsfield city council, asking them a simple question: Do you favor a forensic audit for the city or not, and why? We heard from eight of our […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MAY 5, 2021) — Ward 1 councilor Helen Moon’s decision not to run for re-election comes as no surprise to THE PLANET. She made her decision because of ill health: The voters got sick of her. Moon issued a statement via social media: […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MAY 3, 2021) — Time once again to clean out the notebook. ‘Not Quite Dead’ — Matthew Tucker, the once- public access coordinator at Pittsfield Community Television and now free on bail in connection with the district attorney’s charges of manslaughter and reckless […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION APRIL 30-MAY 2, 2021) — If at-large councilors Peter Marchetti, Peter White, and Earl Persip have ganged up on the fourth at large member to discourage her from running for re-election, they have failed. Methuselah’s Bar and Lounge owner and councilor-at-large […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY APRIL 28, 2021) — THE PLANET stumbled across what one interested observer called “a little plot thickening with the Yuki bar dancing.” “It turns out that the person who reported the video to the health department was none other than Earl Persip,” our source […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY APRIL 26, 2021) — Today, THE PLANET presents a guest column that sheds light on the tragic demise of the once-thriving Berkshire County Softball Complex. We had the pleasure of playing on several teams there in the 80s and 90s. Our columnist details […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION APRIL 23-5, 2021) — People are quick to place THE PLANET into their little, ideological boxes. Our work as a columnist, talk show host on radio and TV, and now blogger has been going on long enough where many make the mistake […]
