westlake - what's so funny?

        The regulars all hunched at the bar were clutching tight their glasses as they practiced their thousand-yard stare, while the lady irregulars mostly seemed to be thinking about their canning. Even Andy Kelp, ... , now seemed to have settled deeply into a search for a rhyme for "silver".

          < those lines on first page prompted me to buy the book, for €4 in used bin  [but new] round the corner from my place>