Thanks to everyone who helped with the UK postal question

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, AnitaKH <anita_hillin at ...> wrote:
>
>  Geoff pointed out:
>  With respect,  I think you mean alumnus. If you want to visit alum, a 
>  trip to the Chemistry department of your local school or college would 
>  suffice... :-)
> 
> akh explains (after smiling at the reply):
> 
> "Alum" in my industry is shorthand for alumnus/alumna, so we don't have to specify a 
gender (PC, anyone?).  As it happens, I could have said "alumna" because the school for 
which I work was a girls' college prep school through 1962 and didn't graduate a boy until 
1968, so all the folks in the UK are women.  
> 
> My mother always had alum in the kitchen cabinets, since she was big on pickling 
vegetables.  I do think of that from time to time when I use the term...
> 
> akh, who does NOT have any alumni in her kitchen cabinets, although there may be a 
couple of kittens...

Geoff:
Perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut,  living on the nice side of the 'pond'  ;-)

Alumnus/alumni are words very rarely used in UK English.