The President's Parasite and Other Stories

Jim Musgrave
Contemporary Instructional Concepts Publishers (2006)
ISBN 0977650367
Reviewed by Ellen Hogan for Reader Views (10/06)

"The President's Parasite and Other Stories" is a compilation of lots of stories, some are cute, some are interesting and some you wonder why it was written. The stories really don't relate to one another in any way, so there is no real main theme.

These are three of the stories that I particularly liked:

“Joe's Rendezvous” - This is the story of the first meeting of Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe.  Did it happen this way, may be. The story goes that Joe was eating in a restaurant with an older man when a gorgeous young woman walked in and over to their table. The older man introduced them to each other and then left. They chit chat for a little while and then Mickey Rooney walks up to their table and Marilyn is quite impressed. However he wants to talk to Joe and is thrilled to meet his childhood idol. Then Marilyn asks Joe, "Don't you play some kind of sport?"  He answers that he plays baseball for the Yankees. Finally Marilyn is impressed and tells Joe that she goes and visits her mother who is crazy every year and asks if he would like to go with her.  She says "maybe she will recognize you. I guess you're the most famous baseball player in the world!" To which Joe answers "honey, there's one thing you have to learn.  Me, you, everybody in the world. We're all special. I'm just one of them. I'm just Joe. But I'd love to go with you."

“A Betting Man” - There was a man named Stan who loved to bet that people couldn't find things. The Tankard's Alehouse was where it all took place. First bet was for a hundred dollars to find someone wearing a St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap. It must be on a citizen and this person must be a tourist.  Mickey Arthur who had been a drunken loser before that day came running in with a young kid wearing the cap. The bets kept going on for over a month, then one day the bet was that they would find Stan's wife Angie from a picture he had. The third day of the bet Wally Chambers came into the bar with Angie.

She was surprised to see Stan and said she thought he was dead. He told her that he just wanted to see her one last time.  Six months later Angie came in the bar with red swollen eyes, she was also pregnant. She told them that Stan had died from an inoperable brain tumor. She said he wanted to see her one more time before he went back to the hospital. Stan made one last bet in the V.A. Hospital; the wager was when the child would be born. He raised over eighty-thousand dollars. They asked what the winner got and she said to be her baby's namesake.  Stan Burger was a real winner.

“Lee in '63” - This is a story from Lee Harvey Oswald's perspective of the events of that November day. He picked his way through the stacks of textbooks, with a long brown wrapped object. He is by the window while he remembers the argument he had with Marina. Then he unwraps the 38-caliber, bolt action, single-shot Italian rifle. It was nothing like the M-1 automatic he had in the Corps. He spreads the ammo out on a long case of books.  There is noise outside as the motorcade approaches. He grins as the cars go around the bend, they will pass under him and he is ready. "The years will remember this day-November 22, 1963--as the day Lee Harvey Oswald changed the course of human history." He shoots three times then stops to buy a coke so he will look cool. He dreams of being a hero in the Kremlin. He and Marina will ride down Red Square in a limo.  "Every dog has its day, and Lee will be free in '63. Power to the people!"

There are many more stories in the book, some I thought were very good and others I didn't care for. It's for anyone interested in current events and also a little bit of history. Some of them are really thought-provoking.

I would recommend "The President's Parasite and Other Stories."  Even though I didn't care for some of it, it was a good read.

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