V. chapter 5, part II questions

[Prokopis Prokopidis]

Questions from V., chapter 5, continued  
 
4) Procuring string from Bloomingdale's [p. 123-4]

> Gouverneur ("Roony") Winsome sat on his grotesque espresso machine, 
> smoking string
...
> The string was from Bloomingdale's, fine quality: procured by 
> Charisma several months before on one of his sporadic work binges; 
> he'd been a shipping clerk that time. Winsome made a mental note 
> to see the pusher from Lord and Taylor's, a frail girl who hoped 
> someday to sell pocketbooks in the accessories department. The 
> stuff was highly valued by string smokers, on the same level as 
> Chivas Regal Scotch or black Panamanian marijuana.

String smoking: Don't know what exactly Roony is smoking (some sort of
grass?) and how illegal it was in the 50's.

Charisma, Roony and their pusher: What I understand is that Charisma
bought the string from a girl working in the Lord and Taylor's
department of Bloomingdale's. Is that correct?

5) Roony Winsome's taste in music [p. 124]

> Roony was an executive for Outlandish Records (Volkswagens in Hi-Fi, 
> The Leavenworth Glee Club Sings Old Favorites) and spent most of 
> his time out prowling for new curiosities.

Volkswagens in Hi-Fi: Taking into account some other hits of Roony's,
are these real vehicles? And not some band with this name?

The Leavenworth Glee Club Sings Old Favorites: In his "A Reader's Guide
To Thomas Pynchons's _V._", J. A. Pittas-Giroux mentions that 

> Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary is located in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Is the reference to that institution obvious to an american reader?
Accordingly, would that reader gather that the members of that choir(?)
are probably prisoners?

6) Mafia reverting [p. 123] 

> Mafia his wife was in on the bed playing with Fang the cat. At 
> the moment she was naked and dangling an inflatable brassiere 
> before the frustrated claws of Fang who was Siamese, gray and 
> neurotic. "Bouncy, bouncy," she was saying. "Is the dweat big 
> kitties angwy cause he tant play wif the bwa? EEEE, he so cute 
> and fickle."
>
> Oh, man, thought Winsome, an intellectual. I had to pick an 
> intellectual. They all revert.

What do all intellectuals revert to? To a stupid, wild mental state?

7) Mafia's slyness [p. 126] 

> Mafia at one time had been daft to have kids. There may
> have been some intention of mothering a string of super-children, 
> founding a new race, who knew. Winsome had apparently met 
> her specifications, both genetic and eugenic. Sly, however,
> she waited, and the whole contraceptive rigmarole was gone through 
> in the first year of Heroic Love. Things meanwhile having started
> to fall apart, Mafia became, naturally, more and more uncertain of 
> how good a choice Winsome had been after all.

Since Winsome is acceptable, why does Mafia wait? And why is this sly?

8) Fu's joke [p. 131]

> "The vagrant minstrel Ling, having insinuated himself into the 
> confidence of a great and influential mandarin, made off one night 
> with a thousand gold yuan and a priceless jade lion, a theft which 
> so unhinged his former employer that in one night the old man's hair
> turned snow white, and to the end of his life he did little more 
> than sit on the dusty floor of his chamber, plucking listlessly at
> a p'ip'a and chanting, 'Was that not a curious minstrel?'"

If this is not something like a bloated haiku, well, can someone explain
the joke?