In California: The Life and Death of a Good Joke

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By now, national renown was beginning to seem like work. Club membership had crept past 450, including a proud contingent from Carroll. Most were men, despite club advocacy of a Dull Rights Amendment for feminists (women don't seem to be comfortable with dullness, says Troise). Printing and mailing costs ate up the income. The organizers figure they made about $100 apiece. "Wefutzed around with T shirts for a while," says Glanting, but the only size that sold was extra large, and "who wants to have ten gross of T shirts in his living room?" Glanting was losing money skipping work, and he says that he turned down requests for appearances from Tom Snyder's Tomorrow show and Dr. Joyce Brothers.

At the Café Babar the other night, Troise came cautiously to the phone and said yes, they were trying to give the club a decent burial. "Don't use my address, O.K.?" There was a good deal of commotion in the background, and the caller asked Troise whether the noise was creative ferment. Well, as a matter of fact, Troise admitted, he and a friend were trying to mobilize the nation's pets to solve the energy crisis. "Put the little beggars on treadmills." Did the movement have a slogan? "Sure: 'It's not enough to be cute any more.' " —By John Skew