TIE ONE ON

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Your veteran reporters of last week's Massachusetts Liquor Revolution, Messrs. Dake and Decherd (Crimson, March 2), should go back to Diet Pepsi and Doctor Pepper.

Observing their 18-year-old brethren ordering "exotic drinks" at Charlie's on liberation night, they tell us of a mysterious alcoholic ingredient called "Quantro." (Like that old familiar red wine, Bojolay.) Worse still, they counsel the reader--and also, it seems, the hapless bartender at Charlie's--on "Mai Tai's." "In point of fact," confide the knowing Dake and Decherd, "it is the drink which President Nixon shared with Chou En-Lai in Peking last February." They should have added that Pat Nixon wore a hula skirt while Mrs. Mao Tse-tung dished out poi at the Peking People's Luau.

Mai Tai's, dear friends, are what we drink in Hawaii and now also apparently at Charlie's. Mao-tai is the famous North China firewater, a very different thing. James C. Thomson, Jr.   Curator, Nieman Foundation for Journalism

Editor's Note: Doctor Thomson should note that "Doctor" Pepper is what they think they are drinking in Cambridge, Mass. Dr. Pepper, the famous 10-2-4 firewater developed, bottled and distibuted in Dallas, Tex., is exactly the same thing.