Membership Drive

An extraterrestrial named Keeter studies human broadcasts, adopts familiar clothing, and makes an awkward, unannounced landing near a national memorial. His casual manner and blunt contempt for ceremony unsettle officials who alternate between reverence and outrage, while his behavior exposes cultural misunderstandings. After disappearing briefly and reappearing aboard the ship, he produces a defective transistor and requests assistance to repair his computer, leaving human authorities both baffled and flattered. The tale uses comic situations and bureaucratic pomp to satirize first-contact expectations, national pride, and the fragile dignity of officialdom.