let me see...and the pronunciation is key here....'old white dress' in simplified Chinese....retranslated by the HOLLLIDAY family as something like 'lau baby food'...for baby alters, martine?

alternatively 'lau baby fool'?

I can remember the HOLLIDAY family calling their chef - 'lau'...simply 'old'? that's rude, isn't it? anyway, I can now see why US intelligence were to infer that they were not after 'elderly Japanese men' in this instance:

 

of  course it might be a term of respect...see previous notes upon mark r's production of HENRI the cat with ENNUI...and "ah la vieille"....the 'old wise one' sort of thing....oh I see, it might be a shortening of this expression...all I can remember is that in context...I had heard it as a 'mark of respect'...

 

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2265001

 

 

manneke at warwick...had told me that 'the old man' is something similar in Japanese....a mark of respect...the leader, to whom the others, defer....