BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 15, 2021) — To paraphrase Andy Griffith, “What it was was baseball.” What it is is something unrecognizable. Major League Baseball continues to destroy the game that became The National Pastime and has now become the National Passgas. Not content with dumb […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 12-14, 2021) — The floodgates have yet to open on the Moon v. Harrington damned dam, but there have been considerable leaks. THE PLANET has received information from both camps. They are obviously jockeying for position if and when an […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 10, 2021) — Berkshire County D.A. Andrea Harrington’s flack says Helen Moon, the office’s former director of special projects, demanded $150,000 in hush money to keep quiet about what she knows of the inner workings of the county’s top criminal-justice office. Moon […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 8, 2021) — There’s a crisis at the nation’s southern border, Uncle Sam’s “leaders” just released an unaffordable $1.9 trillion freebie, and a full Moon over Harrington has eclipsed the any remaining semblances of semblance at the D.A.’s office. It ironic that […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 5-7, 2021) — THE PLANET has been on this earth for 14 U.S. presidents and 15 Pittsfield mayors. How do we discuss so many? The question was put to us recently at a small gathering of a secret society meeting […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 3, 2021) — Spend. That’s the word on THE PLANET today. Spend spend spend. Spend, spend, spend, spend. spendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspendspend. In 2020, the federal government spent $4 trillion to provide economic relief from the hardships caused by the COVID-19 virus. This year, a […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, DATE, 2021) — While the dynamic, inclusive, diverse vibrancy of Pittsfield continues to dazzle your senses and the B.S. continues like sausage-making from the Tyer Administration about the wonder of it all, THE PLANET thought you might be interested in a more objective, third-party […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION FEB. 26-28, 2021) — In our previous column, THE PLANET presented a hot link to the statement of the Pittsfield Police Advisory Review Board (PARB). In it, the board announced it signed on to the state’s new regulations regarding policing with […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY Part 1 of 2 (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEST, WEDNESDAY FEB. 24, 2021) — You may have missed it while you were in hospital for removal of tire tracks on your backside from the Tyer Administration’s bond-refinancing bus that ran over you (see THE PLANET‘s previous column). The […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEST, MONDAY FEB. 22, 2021) — “History repeats itself,” observed that noted vaudevillian comic, Karl Marx. “The first time is tragedy. The second time is farce.” Here’s are a few more profundities: “Injuns? Why there’s no injuns in these parts” — Gen. George Armstrong […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEST, MONDAY FEB. 15, 2021) — THE PLANET enters week two of our vacation, whistling down the road of life. We shall make this quick-hit then turn to you for comments. Something happened this week. It’ll come to us in a moment. Oh yeah, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ADD 1 FEB. 11, 2021 — Through miracle of high tech (satellites, e-patches) + low-tech (paper clips, bailing wire), THE PLANET can post this brief message to y’all. We’re enjoying our time, and a wild one it is (in literal but exhilarating sense). Glad to see folks […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION FEB. 5-7, 2021) — THE PLANET closes the week sweet and simply. It’s Super Bowl weekend. You might expect us to get all serious with warnings about super spreader events, but you’d be wrong. THE PLANET believes in freedom and recognizes […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY FEB. 3, 2021) — Here is the full text of the mayor’s 2021 “State of the City” address, presented without comment. THE PLANET reserves comments to you, our readers. We have taken it unedited and as presented from the city’s website. ———- ooo […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY. FEB. 1, 2021) — One of the areas Syracuse Joe Biden and the Democrats hammered President Trump was Trump’s handing of the pandemic. Biden called it “dismal” and promised to hit Day One with a plan ready to go and go smoothly. The […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JAN. 29-31, 2021) — One of the great surprises from doing THE PLANET, this being the 2,199th column published in this series (about two million words), has been allowing people to express themselves freely and fully. With the restrictions now placed […]
