BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY APRIL 12, 2021) — What if we began this way? “They waddled into Berkshire County Superior Court, all 600 pounds of them, an estimate of their combined weight. If they were billboarding for the 7 Capital Sins, which would it be, sloth or […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION APRIL 9-11, 2021) — Outgoing Ward 4 councilor Chris Connell posted this remark with respect to THE PLANET‘s previous column, one that provided fractured snapshots of the ocean’s eleven that make up, and we do mean ‘make up,’ the city council: […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, DATE, 2021) — It’s April, the cruelest month, and nomination papers wait for the claiming in the Pittsfield city clerk’s office. Already, a cuppa-three have done it. With that THE PLANET presents this unabashed look at the current lineup of sodbusters. Ward 1 Helen […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY APRIL 5, 2021) — Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, charged with manslaughter, second-degree murder, and third-degree murder in the death of George Floyd, sat passively but attentively during the first week of his trial. Behind him loomed a large portrait of Floyd, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ADD 1, 4/2/21 — After writing this and it being active since Thursday night around 10 p.m. EST, THE PLANET has once again proven prescient. Today, Courtney Gilardi took out papers to run in Ward 4, a mere hours after we posted the following column. Once again […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ADD 2 — 4/1/21 No April’s Fool joke, this latest in a series of crimes plaguing the city. From the PPD release: On Wednesday 03/31/2021, at approximately 8:30 PM, members of the Pittsfield Police Department responded to the Mobil Mart located at 580 North St for a […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY First in a Two-Part Series (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 29, 2021) — There’s a clan war going on between some residents of the Shacktown section on upper Holmes Road and the city of Pittsfield over a now-built and running cell phone tower there. In 2017 Verizon petitioned […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 26-8, 2021) — A few items to clear off the desk this Madness weekend, and then THE PLANET turns to discussion over to you. NEIGHBORS NOT BUYING CELL TOWER — On upper Holmes Road, technically in the 800 block of […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 24, 2021) — USA Today recently ran a story on cities that should fare well and poorly after the COVID-19 pandemic retires. The article asks what will happen to workforces when more companies continue or initiate the option of working at home? Where […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 22, 2021) — Spring has sprung, and with that, THE PLANET presents the flowering of the COVID vaccination debate, what we call “The Vaccinated Chronicles.” Of course, this would be unnecessary if Pittsfield were run by competent, honest officials. But alas … […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 19-21, 2021) — Somehow, Bay Staters knew that when it came to COVID vaccinations, Massachusetts — the purported world leader in health care, with its vaunted medical centers — would blow it. As soon as politicians got involved, those in […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, ST. PATRICK’S DAY, 2021) — Shocking news. Investigators have actually found a woman who does not claim she was sexually harassed by New York Gov. Andrew “Born on Third” Cuomo. Stop the presses! Press the stoppers! Call the roller of fat cigars! Erin, go braless. […]
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 […]
