You've got to love him even if you hate him

Reviews and notices are starting to pop up around Puget Sound, a better class of flotsam and jetsam than tennis shoes with feet in them.

(And please note, it's "Puget Sound," not "the Puget Sound," as some news anchors have irritating taken to saying. There is no "the" in Puget Sound!)

Tacoma Weekly reviewer John Larson generously writes: "Regardless of one's age, or how long they have lived here, "Pugetopolis" is a worthwhile book full of insight into our region and what can be done to preserve the special essence of the area."

In Port Orchard, a writer pays the author a fine compliment which eliminates any possibility of any negative assessment: Knute Berger is "one of those people you’ve just got to love — whether you love him or hate him. He’s one of the quintessential northwest types — like Starbucks, only the antithesis."

That would be a 5-cent cup of Manning's java perhaps.