VLVL2 (9.5): "Thi Anh Tran"

[Dave Monroe]

"... referring to an argument that had been going on
all week about where to take the third partner at V &
B Tow, Thi Anh Tran, to lunch for her birthday, whose
date Blood, the company yenta, had found in her
folder...." (VL, Ch. 9, pp. 181 ff.)


"Thi Anh Tran"

Meaning in Vietnamese?  Tea and ...?  TNT?  Or ...

[Coincidentally or not, Thi Anh Tran's initials, TAT,
happen to be the acronym for the Thematic Aperception
Test, which has been used for many years as part of
the basic psych evaluation battery: You make up
stories about simple pictures, revealing all
unknowingly.]

http://www.mindspring.com/~shadow88/chapter9.htm

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT):

Developed by Henry Murray an American psychologist in
1935. It is the second most popular PROJECTIVE Test. 
Consists of 31 cards one of which is blank, and the
others depict scenes or emotional events.  The first
shows a boy looking thoughtfully at a violin before
him.  Generally clinicians use less than 20 cards
which are selected according to the patients age and
sex.  Subject is told, "I will show you a series of
pictures and would like you to make up a story for
each one.  The stories should be as dramatic and
imaginative as possible.  Tell me what is happening in
each picture, what led up to it and what the outcome
will be. Describe fully as you can the thoughts and
feelings of the characters".

Analysed less systematically than the Rorschach. 
Interpretation involves careful reading and re-reading
of the stories produced, noting repetition themes,
characteristic ways in which the hero (generally taken
to be the patient) is described, the range of feelings
expressed, how stories are resolved, and whether
outcomes tend to be happy or not.  The clinicians task
is to construct a set of hypotheses which best explain
why particular stories were told and what kind of
person lies behind the story productions.

"The  study of  reliability and validity  is even more
complex because of the lack of commonly agreed on
scoring and analysis systems," Korchin (1976).

http://sabryabdelfattah.tripod.com/docs/psymetry.htm

And see for examples, e.g., ...

http://www.ryerson.ca/~mjoppe/ResearchProcess/841TAT.htm

At any rate, see also ...

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9811&msg=33772&sort=date


"the company yenta"

Main Entry: yen·ta 
Pronunciation: 'yen-t&
Function: noun
Etymology: Yiddish yente, from the name Yente
Date: 1923
: one that meddles; also : BLABBERMOUTH, GOSSIP

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary


"Taco Carajo"

damn [dæm]

A  transitive verb1  (religion) condenar
IDIOM: to damn something/somebody with faint praise
despachar algo/a alguien con tímidos elogios 
2  (slang) (in exclamations)
damn it!/you! ¡maldita sea!/seas! (informal)
well I'll be damned! ¡caramba! (informal); ¡vaya!
(informal)
I'll be damned if I will! ¡ni en broma!; ¡ni pensarlo!
 
B  exclamation (slang) ¡maldita sea! (informal);
¡caray! (informal); ¡me cago en la leche! (Spain)
(slang); ¡carajo! (Latin America) (offensive) ...

http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=damn
carajo (noun, masc.) 
penis (falling into disuse with this meaning)  Widely
used in expressions like "Vete al carajo" (Go to
hell!), "Que carajo quieres?" (What the fuck do you
want?)

http://www.notam02.no/~hcholm/altlang/ht/Spanish.html


"antojitas"

Antojito - [Spanish] snack or an appetizer, it means
little whim.

Antojitos mexicanos - [Spanish] snacks; corn- or
tortilla-based Mexican foods, including enchiladas,
tacos and tamales.

http://www.recipestogo.com/glossary/glossaryA.html


"Dragon Lady"

Cf. "a Dragon Lady pageboy with bangs" (GR, p. 670)

Refers to the hairstyle of the Oriental
arch-villainess of the comic strip Terry and the
Pirates, created by Milton Caniff and continued by
George Wunder, although as originally drawn by Caniff,
she did not have bangs. 

http://www.english.mankato.msus.edu/larsson/gr4.html

Illustration at ...

http://www.english.mankato.msus.edu/larsson/companions%20companion/dragon.html

http://www.electro-comicsonline.com/art_store/jpegs/canif-d1.jpg

And see as well ...

http://www.budplant.com/bio.itml/icOid/9063

http://www.toonopedia.com/terry.htm

http://www.comic-art.com/bios-1/caniff01.htm


"organizations that were much less coy about theft"

http://www.irs.gov/

However ...

http://home.att.net/~Resurgence/L-taxestheft.htm

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-taxestheft.htm


"Pendleton"

http://www.cpp.usmc.mil/

http://www.cpp.usmc.mil/cpao/pages/pcs/map.pdf

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