The Acquisitive Chuckle

"The Acquisitive Chuckle" is a mystery short story by American writer Isaac Asimov in 1971, first published in the January 1972 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. He originally called it "The Chuckle", but the magazine's title was kept in subsequent uses of the story. It was the first of Asimov's stories about the Black Widowers, an eccentric group of men who met once a month. The group is based loosely upon the Trap Door Spiders, a stag-club of which Asimov was a member.