Gary Dahl, inventor of the Pet Rock, RIP

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Gary Dahl who in 1975 invented the Pet Rock died last week at age 78.

From the New York Times:

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One night in the mid-’70s, he was having a drink in Los Gatos, the Northern California town where he lived for many years. At the time, he was a freelance copywriter (“that’s another word for being broke,” he later said), living in a small cabin as a self-described “quasi dropout.”


The bar talk turned to pets, and to the onus of feeding, walking and cleaning up after them.


His pet, Mr. Dahl announced in a flash of bibulous inspiration, caused him no such trouble. The reason?


“I have a pet rock,” he explained.


A pet rock, Mr. Dahl quickly realized, might just have legs.


“People are so damn bored, tired of all their problems,” he told People magazine in 1975. “This takes them on a fantasy trip — you might say we’ve packaged a sense of humor.”

"Gary Dahl, Inventor of the Pet Rock, Dies at 78"