Yes.  I thought I indicated that I also believed that this is a coding exercise with my reference to "node_load()".  That I will have to write code is undisputed; what I will have to write is still very much an open question that begs clarification.

I've been to VBO and it doesn't seem to do what I need.  It seems to be a two step process -- select the rows of interest, then set the taxonomy; there isn't apparently a more gentle modification.  I also looked at Editable Views and found that I couldn't even get an editable view, which is either my incompetence or misfortune to try to use a field that is not supported.

So the core issue is how Drupal treats display fields differently from "form" fields, and where I can find some explanations.  We know that I could put this taxonomy field on a content-type and I would get editable values on page creation and page modification, so what calls are made to accomplish this, and where can I read about it?

Thanks for the help,

Chris.