I broke down and worked through the Audible docs, and finally got the problem resolved. I had to delete a file called "debug.log" and restart everything. This kind of bugs me, but it worked. I have heard most of this as standup material or on comedy albums but it still cracks me up. I swear there is new stuff, even in familar routines. For example, in the classic "Football and Baseball" routine, he now includes this section:

What is all this fuss about taunting? I don't think it goes far enough. If a lineman sacks the quarterback, I think he should be allowed to pull down his pants and masturbate on him. If he can't ejaculate because of the 60,000 people in the stands, slap a 15 yard penalty on him for delay of game.

Ever since I heard that, I've had the low-level giggles. sktop manager program and waited. And waited. Nothing ever happened. I tried again. I closed out the Audible program and IE and started over (and it is worth nothing that none of this works with Mozilla, so I already had to open a different browser to get anything to happen). Starting from the top, same thing. Desktop app opens, nothing downloads or happens after the click. I'm assuming the purpose of the giveaway book is to sell people on the experience much like the Fictionwise books are designed to let people dip their toes in the ebook pool without risking cash. Thus far, Audible has managed to take me, about as receptive a possible potential customer as they can possibly have, and make me not very likely to continue screwing around with them. Not a good way to win customers.