In his book, The Act of Creation (1964), Arthur Koestler reported on the phenomenon of compulsive punning, known as Forster’s syndrome, after the German surgeon who first observed it. In 1929, Forster was operating on a patient suffering from a tumour in the third ventricle – a small cavity deep down in the phylogenetically ancient regions of the mid-brain, adjacent to structures intimately concerned with the arousal of emotions. When the surgeon began to manipulate the tumor, affecting those sensitive structures, the (conscious) patient burst into a manic flight of puns. He exhibited typical sound associations, and with every word of the operator broke into a flight of ideas. The sound of one word swiftly echoed in the sound of the next, and all of the words had something to do with knives and butchery. This gruesome humour, Koestler noted, all came "from a man tied facedown to the operating table with his skull open." For the Nintendo 64 emulator, see 1964 (Emulator). ... Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler (September 5, 1905 - March 3, 1983) was a journalist, novelist, political activist, and social philosopher. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Forster is a common name which can refer to. ... A pun (also known as paronomasia) is a deliberate confusion of similar-sounding words or phrases for comic or serious effect. ...
British relatives of the Forster family alight at the Casa Romantica from their Marblehead Coastal shuttle, chatting about the wonders of the incredibly colorful garden of indigenous California flora unfolding before them in the grounds’ lush horticulture.
In the first exhibit room, the Forster family and other visitors, are treated to an array of photos, charts, and reproductions of letters and contracts revealing the original lot sales and early building development of San Clemente.
Glancing at their programs, the Forsters reflect the week’s amphitheatre attractions including a youth band, an opera recital, a play reading, and a violin trio on different nights, with the notation: “None of these events are amplified.” The neighbors’ concerns had been taken into consideration.
Forster's terns nesting on Green Bay, one of the most polluted estuaries in the Great Lakes, have been studied since 1983.
The improvements in Forster's tern hatching rates between 1983 and 1988 were due to lower exposure of the tern adults and embryos to Green Bay pollutants, especially PCBs.
As with the Forster's terns on Green Bay, nearly all (>98%) of the severe bioeffects in the immature Caspian terns were attributed by researchers to two dioxin-like congeners of PCBs.
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