All I Know about Animal Behavior I Learned in Loehmann's Dressing Room

When syndicated newspaper columnist Bombeck compares gorillas' show-off behavior to the attention-getting ploys of Madonna, Howard Stern, Roseanne and other ``professional exhibitionists,'' one feels she may be onto something. Although many of these 38 lighthearted pieces, which seek out loose parallels between Homo sapiens and the rest of the animal kingdom, don't click, those that do are irreverent, funny and sassy, like her put-down of the men's movement or her survey of sex in the 1990s. There are several awful groaners here, as when the bestselling humorist leaps from the cockroach's eons-old longevity to the ``longevity'' of Christmas fruitcake. A lot of her animal-based observations on humans' mating and courtship habits, emotional makeup and struggle for survival are superficial. Nevertheless, fans will enjoy Bombeck's wry comments on toilet-training toddlers; men's superiority complex about driving a car; women's dieting and compulsion to hoard things; and how to encourage creative play in children. $300,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections. (Oct.)