Arangio describes a Bow where TV sporting events were turned up loud and Black Sabbath metal anthems, such as "Iron Man" blasted away. "There were bikers from the second half of the bar all the way to the back," he says. Now all that's changed.

One senior who visited the Bow for years says, "One day I took a look around and there was everyone who went to all of the freshman parties."

Another senior put it another way: "One day the whole Eliot Crowd showed up and then it was all over." He adds that new nicknames for pub include "the Bow and Eliot" and "Lowell and Arrow."

But Arangio and his friends revel in Bow and Arrow folklore. He says that every Friday night, a man, with a pipe in one hand and a drink in the other, comes in to play checkers. "He puts the drink down just long enough to move," says Arangio, who comes from the Orient Heights section of East Boston.

The man, whom bartenders call "George," plays and beats all comers, including Harvard students. And then at 11 P.M., the man's greatest challenger comes in--a guy, Arangio says, whose name is Bob.

"Every weekend he plays Bob in a best-of-five series. Bob has beat him once. No Harvard student has ever beaten him," says Arangio, telling the story in between gulps of beer.

Arangio claims that he once overheard the man talking to himself in the bathroom. "He's talking out loud saying `that fucking Bob, he's a pretty good player, but always comes in here when I'm bombed.'"

Arangio's friend, John Mitchell, a 21-year old from North Dartmouth, Mass., says he has personally witnessed the clash of the bar's two worlds.

"I came in here one day after a job interview wearing a jacket and a tie. A guy in a leather jacket came up to me with his two buddies and said, `Why don't you buy me a drink?' I said, `Why?' He said, `Because you look rich.' I told him this jacket probably cost less than your $300 leather jacket, and he just shut up." Mitchell says the confrontation did not frighten him away from the bar.

`Rick the Bouncer'

Black-shirted muscular bouncers bop around the room. Most are Harvard students.

One of the bouncers, who is off-duty tonight, tells of his initiation into Bow folklore. "I had to meet all the regulars. One of them was a guy named "Rick the Biker," with a beard down to his chest and tattoos everywhere."

The man told the fledgling bouncer the ins and outs of doing security at a bar. He told him about tricks people pull and how to avoid them. "For two hours he told me all the things a bouncer should know," he says.

A few minutes later, Madonna's "Express Yourself" plays in the background. Two of the bouncers jump up and down to the music, the way the dancers do on "Club MTV."

Taking another swig of beer, Arangio says he has a theory about the Bow's surge of popularity amongst students. He says the College's strict new alcohol policy has driven students from drinking in their rooms to bar-hopping.