BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 25, 2019) — There are only three issues to Campaign ’19 in Pittsfield. All other public problems and social concerns serve as offshoots. Before that, however, mayoral candidate and councilor-at-large contacted THE PLANET with a statement relating to claims that she promised […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY SEPT. 23, 2019) — So the lil’ high school snowflakes got their free day off. Bully for them. They disguised it as a “protest,” as if they would know the first thing about actual remonstrance. Of course, intimidated public school administrators, having lost […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION SEPT. 20-22, 2019) — That was the week that was. This one will be, too. Last weekend, THE PLANET visited the campus of Syracuse University, where we addressed students in the journalism, business, and engineering schools. We told them nothing of […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY SEPT. 18, 2019) — THE PLANET yawned along with 78% of the electorate yesterday for a sleep study known at the Pittsfield preliminary election. Every race turned out as we predicted. With 6,078 voters of an electorate total of 27,893 (22%), you can […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY [ED. NOTE: When THE PLANET went to press late Sunday evening with the first edition of this story, we had not heard from the Tyer campaign. Our initial story reflected that. At 9 a.m. Monday, Mayor Tyer got back to us with her responses. We present them […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, SOMEWHERE-ANYWHERE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, SEPT. 13-15, 2019) — One of the great lies being shoved down the gullets of Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski is the counter-intuitive approach to crime being championed by the radical left — politicians, jurists, social activists — in Massachusetts. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, STILL OFF THE MAP, WEDNESDAY SEPT. 11, 2019) — THE PLANET, here at the most remote and idyllic camp this side of Breezely Bruin’s Camp Frostbite, nonetheless maintains a link to civilization. Some of our spies have been in contact, with the county’s top […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, OFF THE MAP SOMEWHERE, MONDAY SEPT. 9, 2019) — To James and all, THE PLANET is still out of civilization and enjoying every microsecond. We are not, however, out of touch, thanks to Al Gore’s invention of the internet. It’s interesting that — in […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION SEPT. 6-8, 2019) — Calling to mind E.B. White’s brilliant essay “Once More to the Lake,” THE PLANET has taken flight, this one to a lake district so remote that a couple of the bodies of water aren’t even on a map. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY SEPT. 4, 2019) — “And the beat goes on.” Yesterday, at 3:29 a.m., gunshots were heard at Daniels Avenue and Union Street. Police “recovered evidence of a shooting” there, according to Pittsfield police Lt. John Soules. Officer Lupisella spotted a Jeep Cherokee driven […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, LABOR DAY, 2019) — Can we all take a breath for a moment? The recent spade of mayhem, murder, and violence has the city of Pittsfield on edge. Meanwhile, its top officials tell everyone that everything’s A-OK. Choose to believe what you will, but […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION AUG. 30-SEPT. 1, 2019) — The murder of Stephanie Olivieri, coupled with the “Tyjaye and Zyir Shoot-O-Rama” (T & Z, two of the finest courtesy of JIV and your Pittsfield Public Schools), piled onto the savage beating and stabbing of two […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY AUG. 28, 2019) — Thirty-six years ago today, THE PLANET produced a pair of concerts at the Boys’ Club in Pittsfield starring “King of the One Liners” Henny Youngman. Not since then has Pittsfield been the site of so many yuks in so […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY AUG. 26, 2019) — If Dan Valenti were moderating tonight’s mayoral debate, he’d do it PLANET style: Roving moderator with hand-held mic 90 minutes Candidates on bar stools and not behind desks or podiums, each holding a wireless mic, no notes or time […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION AUG. 23-5, 2019) — In 1997, China finally won back Hong Kong from Britain, returning to the great Pacific Rim nation what England had stolen from it in the mid-19th century at the end of the first so-called Opium War. That […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY AUG. 21, 2019) — Early this week, THE PLANET exchanged queries and responses with the Melissa Mazzeo for Mayor campaign concerning Monday’s post. After that, we heard from the candidate herself. We relayed a question that’s been brought up on this board and […]
