BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY AUG. 19, 2019) — Not if but when. National and local campaigns have an inverse relationship. Nationally, as we learned the day after Donald Trump became president, campaigns never end. If you’re serious about national office, you become a full-time huckster wheezling endlessly […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION AUG. 16-18, 2019) — The 50th anniversary of the Woodstock festival praise be has been thrust upon us. You may have heard about it. Many of you might also know that a band from Pittsfield, Mass., The Quarry, played the most […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY AUG. 14, 2019) — As we approach late summer and early fall, THE PLANET will be sharing periodic coverage of Campaign ’19. In this semi-annual dog-and-pony show, the corner office (four years), council, city clerk, and school committee will be up for grabs. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY AUG. 12, 2019) — THE PLANET‘s not buying the “suicide” of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, he of the billionaire lifestyle and friends among the crème de la creeps. Officials found Epstein “unresponsive” in his cell at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Facility. The shocker […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION AUG. 9-11, 2019) — THE PLANET deliberately introduced the previous column (“Shoot Everybody”) with a reference to the “unnecessary” bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We did so to counter the prevailing view that contemporary circumstance justified Truman’s decision to drop the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY AUG. 7, 2019) — The 74th anniversary+1 of the day of the United States needlessly dropping an A bomb at Hiroshima (prefacing an even more heinous “event” three days later at Nagasaki), instantly vaporizing half a million innocent civilians, seems a precipitous time […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY AUG. 5, 2019) — Pop-pop-pop-pop-poppoppopopopop. Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thumpthumpthumpthump. And just like that, in just 12 hours and an action-time of maybe five minutes in the United States of Amnesia, 29 innocent people were gunned down and 52 shot and wounded. Pop, pop … fizz, fizz […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, AUG. 2-4, 2019) — A formal welcome to August and the weekend. THE PLANET‘s review of a play’s out-of-state production was served, as most readers realized, with the “comments” feature suspended. This produced several reactions, mostly good, with several contacting us […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (ED. NOTE: For this column, THE PLANET is suspending comments for obvious reasons. This review of Damn Yankees is not for a local staging but for a production now under way in Syracuse, N.Y., where, incidentally, this site has gathered a following. Our normal comment component returns […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 29, 2019) — THE PLANET steps aside today for this guest column from John McWhorter. We occasionally publish guest columns not because we agree or disagree with the content but because they are reasonably well written and contain arguments pertaining to relevant […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JULY 26-28, 2019) — We open to the weekend by cleaning out some files, including letters sent in that for one reason or another weren’t used — the Sophie Tucker dilemma: So much to do, so little time to do it […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JULY 24, 2019) — Given the campaign inactivity thus far, several have been asking THE PLANET if November’s mayoral election is too early to call in favor of Tyer. Short answer: A qualified yes, which we shall expound upon in a future column. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 22, 2019) — He’s a racist, she’s a racist, all God’s chillen’ be racist. That does seem to be the most presently fashionable epithet, a form of political upchucking. Let’s see. Alexandria Occasional-Cortex (D-Lipstick) says Nancy Pelosi is a racist. Nancy Pelosi […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JULY 19-21, 2019) — The Town of Lanesboro expressed relief after the sale of the Berkshire Mall. The new owner, Durga Property Holdings, paid back taxes owed by previous owner Mehan Kohanesieh. Win-Win-Win, right? Possibly, and we hope so, but looking […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JULY 17, 2019) — Let’s see. There’s Spud Chandler, former flinger for the New York Yankees; Albert “Happy” Chandler, former commissioner of baseball; Gene Chandler, the Duke of Earl; Don Chandler, punter extraordinaire for the New York Football Giants; and Raymond Chandler, writer […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 15, 2019) — Open season during a campaign year falls between early April and late July, when nomination papers can be had for the asking. The meaning of this civic ink-blot test clarifies when papers have to be filed on deadline, determining […]
