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Pugetopolis: A Mossback Takes on Growth Addicts, Weather Wimps, and the Myth of Seattle Nice
Knute "Skip" Berger is one of the most recognized commentators on politics, culture, business, and life in the Pacific Northwest. He’s the Mike Royko/Jimmy Breslin of this part of the country. As Timothy Egan describes him in the Foreword to Pugetopolis, he is the region’s "crank with a conscience…a contrarian" thinker who calls out the folly and hubris...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
December 2nd 2008
by Sasquatch Books
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Berger really is right on the money when he bills this as “A Mossback Takes on Growth Addicts, Weather Wimps, and the Myth of Seattle Nice.” Just by looking at his hoary visage on the back page of this, his first collection of articles formerly published elsewhere from the 90s up to today, you know you’re in for a rollickin’ good ride of snarkiness -- Pacific Northwest-style.
Berger’s critical eye reminds me of a liberal Rush Limbaugh. Over-bloated, sharp-witted, and often down-right ...more
Berger’s critical eye reminds me of a liberal Rush Limbaugh. Over-bloated, sharp-witted, and often down-right ...more
I can assure the readers of this book with a catchy headline that:
Every city has people similar to Mr. Berger who makes a living playing the role as that city's "old guardian."
These old guardians and their fans will never leave their host cities and yet want others (i.e. the "newbies" or the "new wave") to either move back or to remain in places the old guardians and their fans would never reside much less even visit (e.g. North Dakota, Iowa and oth...more
Every city has people similar to Mr. Berger who makes a living playing the role as that city's "old guardian."
These old guardians and their fans will never leave their host cities and yet want others (i.e. the "newbies" or the "new wave") to either move back or to remain in places the old guardians and their fans would never reside much less even visit (e.g. North Dakota, Iowa and oth...more
Meh. I didn't love it.
Because it's a collection of essays written over several years, there is a lot of repetition. By the halfway point, I was thinking, "Wait - didn't I already read this one?"
There were a handful of enjoyable essays, but the overwhelming theme throughout was to long for the good old days before so many people moved here, destroyed the natural environment, and messed up the small-town way of life. It got a little old to me. I get the sens...more
Because it's a collection of essays written over several years, there is a lot of repetition. By the halfway point, I was thinking, "Wait - didn't I already read this one?"
There were a handful of enjoyable essays, but the overwhelming theme throughout was to long for the good old days before so many people moved here, destroyed the natural environment, and messed up the small-town way of life. It got a little old to me. I get the sens...more
I've always been waiting for that nugget piece by Knute Berger, where he brings together the various strings of thought and shows me exactly where he is coming from. Fred Moody did this in Seattle and the Demons of Ambition. Even though Moody stole liberally from his previous work, Demons of Ambition stands on its own as a personal and regional history. And, it makes a cogent argument about where we are headed as a region.
This is what I expected from Berger in Pugetopolis, but what it ...more
This is what I expected from Berger in Pugetopolis, but what it ...more
It was fun to read Knute Berger's collection of writing in one place. I got it on a sale table and read it in an afternoon, great fun to read his take on things and catch up on those I had missed previously. Certainly he could be channeling Emmett Watson and for NW natives this is a comfort to keep this "F&N" look at the PNW alive. I don't think he's as grumpy as other readers have said, but perhaps I am used to hearing his outlook on things. I can't say I read every single piece colle...more
The book is an anthology of articles from the Mossback column from Crosscut. Some of the articles are really funny, and most of them do hit pretty close to home. However, his reputation as a curmudgeonly old man is well deserved and well illustrated here. He longs for the better, more simple times of yesteryear and I got tired of that view of life. That time is over, get on with it. This is the time and place that we live now, if you don't like it, either come up with a better suggestion, o...more
Just a bunch of rants, but they're about where I live now, so that helped. And he says it how he feels it, which I all enjoyed.
Interesting to learn more about this place I'm calling home. Didn't care for some of his "Eek! Change!" pieces, but then I guess I'm part of the change he doesn't care for, so I guess that's to be expected.
Great read - compilation of Seattle new articles - was like revisiting of my history with the city.
Knute Berger sucks. How does this guy still have a job?
Sometimes it's fun to read a book about a city you don't live in. Sure, they've got their problems, perhaps similar to your own, but at the end of a long day it is sometimes nice to read about another city and leave, if temporarily, your own one behind. In this case I used to live in Seattle so I am familiar with some of the issues and personalities, it's just I'll never vote on them or for them again. Told with Berger's sharp wit and irascible sense of himself and environment, this is a fun rea...more
I couldn't get through this book, so it went back to the library, perhaps to be read later. It had some potentially interesting insight into the development of Seattle and Puget Sound, but it rambled around too much to keep me interested.
Although it contained some interesting tidbits about Seattle history and politics, this mostly felt like a rant.
Good for anyone who wants to understand this region, including local politics
Gave up. He's too cranky and I'm too impatient. A match made in Seattle?
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