A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum

[kernelbogey]

Does it have to be chip shop vinegar(is the fish and chip top note important) or would ordinary malt vinegar from the supermarket do?

I was just distinguishing it from my wine vinegar and cider vinegar: just meant malt vinegar, really.

[oddoneout]

Fish and Chip shops do not provide vinegar. They always use "non-brewed condiment", which is manufactured from acetic acid and water. A sort of ersatz vinegar.

Suitable for teetotallers?

[oddoneout]

When I made my early morning wander and forage down the garden today(handful of strawberries and raspberries for breakfast) I noticed that a small white butterfly had evidently been busy laying eggs on the kale plants, some of which I dealt with but I'll go back later. What did surprise me was getting the washing in just now and finding a cluster of large white butterfly eggs neatly deposited on my work shirt... No idea what that was about(perhaps teal is close enough to cabbage colour, but it wouldn't smell right) but I've made a careful check of the rest of the washing!

[richardfinegold]

Fish and Chip shops do not provide vinegar. They always use "non-brewed condiment", which is manufactured from acetic acid and water. A sort of ersatz vinegar.

Vinegar is acetic acid and water, plus whatever flavorings that are added

[Bryn]

Vinegar is acetic acid and water, plus whatever flavorings that are added

Not so simple. Vinegar is specifically produced by fermentation, hence the designation of "non-brewed condiment" for the substitute used in Fish and Chip shops.

[oddoneout]

Vinegar is acetic acid and water, plus whatever flavorings that are added

And the acetic acid can come from alcohol brewing so the flavours come from the initial process. All the vinegars in my cupboard are brewed - wine, cider, etc. It can be an unwanted happening with home wine making if the relevant bacteria get in. My Grandfather tried for several years to make wine from a (non dessert)pear tree in the garden. Never got wine but it did produce the most wonderful delicately flavoured vinegar that I was happy to consume in considerable quantities - with or without the finely sliced home grown cucumbers Granny prepared as a salad for high tea.
For years now it seems to be considered normal practice to add preservatives to such vinegar. I can only assume it's a way to prevent the vinegar "mother" developing, but I don't buy those ones. - the jelly blob doesn't bother me if it appears.

[french frank]

Very strange survey from YouGov. They asked which of a list of activities I had done over last weekend:
Flew in a helicopter
Went bungee jumping
Visited a flea market
Watched TV
Visited McGrath, Alaska
Played poker
Went skiing
Went geocaching (What?)

Um, none of the above. Oh, go on - you must at least have watched TV. Nope. None of the above.

The survey was very short, so I suppose I'd have got a new set of questions if I'd visited McGrath, Alaska, or played poker. I did sail round Bristol harbour in the Matthew, but they didn't ask that.

[Serial_Apologist]

Very strange survey from YouGov. They asked which of a list of activities I had done over last weekend:
Flew in a helicopter
Went bungee jumping
Visited a flea market
Watched TV
Visited McGrath, Alaska
Played poker
Went skiing
Went geocaching (What?)

Um, none of the above. Oh, go on - you must at least have watched TV. Nope. None of the above.

The survey was very short, so I suppose I'd have got a new set of questions if I'd visited McGrath, Alaska, or played poker. I did sail round Bristol harbour in the Matthew, but they didn't ask that.

By coincidence, over the weekend I read John Cage's lecture on Nothing!

[french frank]

By coincidence, over the weekend I read John Cage's lecture on Nothing!

It amused me when our library had on its New Accessions shelf (why not Acquisitions?) a full length book, probably two or three hundred pages long, on the subject of Rien.

I was also amused by the first question of the survey, listing seven recent American presidents/candidates and asking: Who is the current President of the United States of America? (This is a question to check you are paying attention, so please select J. Biden). Money for old rope this survey lark.

[oddoneout]

It amused me when our library had on its New Accessions shelf (why not Acquisitions?) a full length book, probably two or three hundred pages long, on the subject of Rien.

I was also amused by the first question of the survey, listing seven recent American presidents/candidates and asking: Who is the current President of the United States of America? (This is a question to check you are paying attention, so please select J. Biden). Money for old rope this survey lark.

If the book is accessioned then it's fully in the system(Dewey, tagged etc) and available to borrow?

[french frank]

If the book is accessioned then it's fully in the system(Dewey, tagged etc) and available to borrow?

It does seem to have the precise meaning of "An addition to the collection of a library, museum, etc.; an acquisition". I thought it might be a Scottish historical usage, but it seems it is more general and current. I didn't know that (until this minute)

[oddoneout]

It does seem to have the precise meaning of "An addition to the collection of a library, museum, etc.; an acquisition". I thought it might be a Scottish historical usage, but it seems it is more general and current. I didn't know that (until this minute)

A museum may acquire an item, and advertise that acquisition, but there will be a whole process of conservators, research, allocating and recording accession details, before it becomes fully part of the collection and available(ideally) for display or loan.

[Serial_Apologist]

conservators

I really feel uncomfortable with this word, when surely either conservers or conservationists should adequately suffice?

[oddoneout]

I really feel uncomfortable with this word, when surely either conservers or conservationists should adequately suffice?

Conservator is the term for conservation work in arts and historical fields, such as paintings, archives, textiles, buildings. A conservationist works in the filed of the natural environment. Admittedly there is a certain amount of crossover when it comes to the workspace - with a conservation lab being where conservators often work...
I don't know at what point the distinction was made in terminology but the differentiation has its uses, especially if the two activities exist on the same site.

[french frank]

A museum may acquire an item, and advertise that acquisition, but there will be a whole process of conservators, research, allocating and recording accession details, before it becomes fully part of the collection and available(ideally) for display or loan.

That isn't, though, what the dictionary definition implies. The Aberdeen library used the word 'accession', the Bristol library 'acquisition'. In both cases I understood it to refer simply to the display of newly acquired books, which would have been already catalogued.

Conservator seems to me a general term overlapping with keeper and curator, depending on the institution. I've just checked: I'm in correspondence with the "lead curator, Printed Heritage Collection" about some of my books. She might have been a conservator without that worrying me too much.