Eamments " Number 27

Not long ago I received a letter from a reader who expressed appreciation for the wordplay used in Current Comments@ titles. Apparently such immortal titles as “stalking celery’s secrets” I and “from starch to finish.. ironing out some pressing problems” on drycleaningz.s appealed to his and my need for a break in the often serious matters we discuss regularly .’t There is nothing to laugh about in AIDS, world hunger, or whatever, but even some of the serious health problems we’ve discussed have provided opportunities for wordplay. Our essay on cholera, for example, highlighted the research of Dr. Shambu Nath De of Calcutta.5 When the essay was reprinted in the Indian science magazine Science Age, a table of his most-cited papers bore the title “All in a De’s work. ”G Although the foregoing examples of wordplay may already have caused some readers to groan and head for the lSF$’Press Digest section, this report is devoted entirely to puns—a punitive action indeed. The subject is somewhat reminiscent of another humorous device, the one-liner, which I joyfully discussed previously.T Despite being reviled in some circles as the lowest form of wit, a pun can be a very effective means of communicating ideas. Or, as Walter Redfern, University of Reading, UK, expressed it, puns, like contraceptives, can be labor-saving devices. 8 (p. 26) And puns, like metaphor and Poetry,g-11 also have a connection with scientific communication and creativity, which 1’11discuss. A pun, according to 7he Oxford English Dictionary, is “the use of’a word in such ]UIY 6, 1987