Before noon, Cambridge is not a comfortable town to drink in. But after noon, it is possible to while away afternoons, evenings, nights, days, weeks and even semesters without going more than a mile from the Square.

Cambridge is also not a good drinking town after midnight, however. Everyone except private membership clubs and some hotel lounges is required to turn off the tap at 1 a.m. That means last call is usually about 12:30.

Yet there is as wide a variety of bars in the Square area as one can find anywhere in the world and we'd venture to say that if you miss them you're missing one of the most valuable educational opportunities available to Harvard students.

Your tutor may say otherwise, but you haven't learned to live until you've closed your books and hit the watering holes of Cambridge.

Here are just a few. Needless to say, your favorite may not be here; this list is only a hodge-podge of what's awaiting you.

Charlie's Places

Place - 1 Bow St.

Kitchen - 10 Eliot St.

Beef - Mass Ave towards Porter Sq.

The Performance Center lived a short but flashy life. The Spaghetti Emporium, resurrected as the Emporium Cafe, has gone under for the second time. But through it all. Charlie's Place has managed to hold on to reasonably good entertainment, an interesting if sometimes raucous atmosphere, a good place to go to have a beer and a lunch platter

During the day, Charlie's is a nice, quiet place to go to haae a beer and a lunch platter at reasonable prices. You can sit and talk and drink and no one will bother you--solace that becomes more difficult to find all the time. Lunch features, among other things, better-than-average corned beef and pastrami sandwiches, and crispy chicken wings that are reportedly worth a try.

By night, Charlie's transforms itself into one of the few dance bars left in the Harvard Square area--or at least one of the few worth going to. The talent varies, as talent always does, but remains on the high side of middling; the drinks are uncut, which is becoming increasingly unusual at some bars, and are reasonably priced, which is becoming even more unusual.

If you're not looking for entertainment, Charlie has another place--Charlie's Kitchen--on Eliot Street, just a few blocks away. It's more of a neighborhood bar, with an atmosphere that mixes students, working-class people and serious drinkers. You can sit and watch TV, or drink, or feast on a standard bar-type menu of good, low-priced foods.

And up Mass Ave, there's Charlie's Beef and Beer--a more pub-type atmosphere with a broader menu, more food-oriented than drink-oriented, and probably the least interesting of Charlie's Cambridge establishments.

Whatever type of mood you're in, Charlie has a place that can handle you. And he doesn't do a bad job at it, either.