+# xxx mystery
+# the way we use sqlalchemy might be a little wrong
+# in any case what has been observed is that (Reg)Records as returned by an sqlalchemy
+# query not always have their __dict__ properly adjusted
+# typically a RegAuthority object would have its object.name set properly, but
+# object.__dict__ has no 'name' key
+# which is an issue because we rely on __dict__ for many things, in particular this
+# is what gets exposed to the drivers (this is historical and dates back before sqlalchemy)
+# so it is recommended to always run this function that will make sure
+# that such built-in fields are properly set in __dict__ too
+#