BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JUNE 8, 2020) — Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski received the best gift for which they could reasonably hope when the pandemic hit. The resulting economic turmoil — in Pittsfield, more like devastation, with the tourist economy all but destroyed — provided the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JUNE 5-7, 2020) — He had good and bad in him, like all of us. THE PLANET won’t presume to “know” George Floyd or what kind of person he was. We only know some facts about his life plus what those […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JUNE 3, 2020) — One overlooked fact in George Floyd’s death is the composition of the quartet of complicit Minneapolis police officers. Central Casting provided the four, a group consisting of a white, a black, a Latino, and an Asian. Can you get […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JUNE 1, 2020) — It wasn’t enough that the coronavirus put the World’s No. 1 economy into the shredder. Now we have what’s left — Left — being further pulverized by the “protests” following the death of George Floyd at the hands of […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MAY 29-31, 2020) — THE PLANET can express no sufficient amount of outrace regarding the horrible death of George Floyd at the hands and knee of Minneapolis, MN police officer Derek Chauvin, the arresting officer among the quartet responding to a report […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MAY 27, 2020) — On THE PLANET today, a little of thissa and a lot of thatta. BLACK LIKE ME — First, you have the presumptive nominee of the Democrats appearing via Snapchat on a show hosted by a cat called Charlemagne the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ADD 1 5/25/20 — THE PLANET heard reports of shootings, plural, in Pittsfield, and at least one of our correspondents here mentioned something to that effect. It wasn’t rumor. Here’s the information from the Pittsfield Police Department: The Pittsfield Police Department is currently investigating two shooting incidents […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MAY 22-4, 2020) — THE PLANET has lived through three previous pandemics. We’re now on our fourth. The pandemics: In 1957-8, the Asian flu, left 1.1 million people dead worldwide (116,000 in the U.S.). In 1968, the Hong Kong flu struck. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MAY 20, 2020) — Scott Graves and Paul Morin yesterday evening sent THE PLANET their rebuttal to Mayor Linda Tyer’s defense of the city of its treatment of the Rusty Anchor owners with respect to the Anchor and the proposal to develop the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MAY 18, 2020) — Over the weekend, mayor Linda Tyer answered THE PLANET‘s request for comments of the charges put forth by Scott Graves and Paula Morin with respect to their proposal for the former Morningside fire station on Tyler Street. As we […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MAY 15-7, 2020) — Hess Forest has long been a source of laughing-to-keep-from crying among readers of THE PLANET. One of the most popular sketches we did on PLANET VALENTI TV came the day we took the law and a weed wacker […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ADD 1 (noon) — Here’s the PPD’s release on the shooting on Glenwood Avenue: On Tuesday, May 12, 2020 at approximately, 10:53 PM, the Pittsfield Police Department Dispatch Center received a call from a resident at 12 Glenwood Avenue reporting that her son was “destroying” her house. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MAY 11, 2020) — On THE PLANET‘s radar today: Tanglewood, North Adams mayor Tom Bernard, and two derelict locations on beautiful, vibrant, collaborative Tyler Street in Pittsfield. First, a brief note. For all those betting nickels, mayor Linda Tyer DID get back to […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ADD 1, MAY 8 morning — Here’s the full text of the press release issued by the Pittsfield Police Department concerning the shooting near Palmer’s Variety on Elm Street last night: On Thursday 5/7/2020 at approximately 10:05 PM multiple units with the Pittsfield Police Department responded to […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MAY 6, 2020) — When did it happen? When did the American workforce — that mighty arm of workers that tipped huge buckets of molten metal make steel, built cross-country roadways, reporting for work, putting in a hard day’s work for a fair […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MAY 4, 2020) — Hypocrisy has no party. It belongs to “unenrolled.” Witness the right’s treatment of Joe Biden with respect to long-past-expiration-date accusations of sexual harassment from a former aide. The right’s doing what the left did to Brett Kavanaugh. Reade, who […]
