REF: ArrowEA _data->_pa_array
Totally subjective: I prefer a distinctive/informative name.  This makes it easy to e.g. grep for all the places where we access this attribute.
@mroeschke if you're not on board we can close this, otherwise ill rebase Curious, would this make it harder for `ArrowExtensionArray` to try to use masked array methods since it calls `self._data` a lot? > Curious, would this make it harder for ArrowExtensionArray to try to use masked array methods since it calls self._data a lot?

It would if we did that, but they don't share any code...

Also the ._data attributes are different types, which i would think is exactly the kind of thing its nice to have clear names for I was thinking of, for example, utilizing the base masked engine work in the short term to have better indexing support which I think utilizes `._data`.

But overall it's not that big of a deal, I am fine changing it to `_pa_array` @mroeschke any objection to merging before more merge conflicts pile up? > But overall it's not that big of a deal, I am fine changing it to `_pa_array`

yep. Go ahead and change if you feel it's an improvement. no objections but also no enthusiasm.  im on the fence about self-merging. Just fixed another merge conflict.  im planning to merge on green unless someone objects. Thanks @jbrockmendel 