Comment

FIRST THINGS FIRST. A self‐respecting research project must be baptised with a good acronym. Indeed, without this attribute it cannot be taken seriously, and it is not stretching facts too far to suggest that in some cases someone has thought up a snappy acronym and then evolved a research project to hang onto it. My own research projects have been singularly unfortunate in this respect. The first had the initials TCP, and it was not long before this was translated into the ‘antiseptic project’. The current one is known as OIP, and this combination of letters, if said properly with the tongue placed against the tonsils, resembles the mating call of the lesser black‐backed gull. Since the project is not directly concerned with birds (or even with ornithology), the relevance of the acronym seems doubtful. However, a firm of consultants is now working on the problem, and the next project should be suitably labelled.