[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Dana,
Thank you for your detailed comments and thoughts about NGC 3603. I am glad you are investigating this object in greater detail, as I always have the tendency to very-quickly go back to looking at issues from the Galactic and extragalactic point-of-view.

I do agree that N3603 could lose a lot of its mass, with the passing of time. The 100,000 solar mass Young Clusters found in some other galaxies are therefore much better candidates for eventual evolution into a typical "old" globular cluster.
On the other hand, the mass function (distribution of mass) of the population of old globulars (which is remarkably invariant between many and different galaxies) includes many globular star clusters of surprisingly low mass.

I shall consider further, but I have very little free time at the moment!

cheers, robert

As you say, the term 'globular cluster' has become difficult to define. Because of this, in the literature, when this term is used without any further qualification or definition, it has come to mean only the population of 10-13 billion year old clusters that has nearly the same properties in virtually all elliptical and spiral galaxies; the luminosity function of the clusters, the metallicity distribution of the clusters, the cluster sizes and central-concentrations, etc., have been found to be pretty much the same, wherever we look in the universe. (although there are nearly always two distinct populations of old globulars).
So the term 'globular cluster' is still helpful, in that it is still used to refer to two unique & closely-similar populations of very old clusters, that are found in many and various galaxies.