King of All Breasts

While I was writing the last blog, this dumb infomercial is on about a local plastic surgeon who does a lot of breast surgeries. The doctor is describing different types of cases and says, "someone comes in and says their breasts are too large, they want them smaller" and the interviewer asks, "is that considered a reduction?" "Yes, that is what we call a breast reduction." Astounding! When you reduce the size of the breasts, it's considered a REDUCTION! Gosh, I wonder what an AUGMENTATION is?

Speaking of lolling, mocking, mocha latte breasts, I finished Ho Che Anderson's KING biography while waiting for my skinny skank to come back (note to self: revise this review for the Comic Book Galaxy version). It's good for the fact that it effectively shows King as a decent, brave and committed man who nonetheless has a weakness for the ladies. That is, it's neither a hagiography nor is it pure dirt, but presents the different sides of the man in a compact and entertaining format. I most enjoyed just seeing King and his fellow activists talking through their visions for change and the various dangers and roadblocks in the way of that change. That's not to say this is a brilliant book, though. I think it's absolutely worth reading, and it's interesting throughout, but as a kind of illustrated screenplay of King's life it could have used another draft or two. It's just event after event with no real epic sweep or dramatic ebb and flow. It goes from THIS to THAT to THE NEXT THING, and most are pretty interesting, but once it's over, it's over, with no lasting impression or haunting image. The art, which is a mixture of several styles and media, is always good but the choices often seem arbitrary. Also, while it might be a more accurate approach, as real life is never tidy, none of the subplots introduced are ever resolved. Coretta Scott King reveals her knowledge of ML King's affairs, but she never brings it up again. King keeps sleeping around, and it never really affects him. King loses a lot of credibility for his nonviolent stance and not following through on his efforts in Chicago, and then he's killed. King asks Ralph Abernathy to be his successor, but we don't see whether this happens. It's still good; it's stuff everyone should know, and it's presented in an easy way to gain this knowledge, but it's not a great book by any means.