"I wouldn't exactly call it flirting, but you try to bond with the guy," she says.

Others recommend having connections. "We usually know the bouncers," says one sophomore who uses her roommate's sister's I.D.. "If not, we look bored and jaded."

"Once you get familiar you don't need it any more," concurs the first-year from L.A. "The trick is not to show it." Another tip: "Go out with older people who know club owners."

THE COUNTER-ATTACK

John Nowaczyk '92, a Government concentrator who works as a bouncer at the Bow and Arrow Pub, says he knows all these tricks.

"There are two scenarios," he says. "One, someone comes in with a license that is their sister's or their friend's. It's usually expired--an out-of-state or expired I.D. is almost never the person in the picture."

And for those who think their doctored I.D.s are the secret, Nowaczyk adds, "Sometimes people come in with a homemade I.D.. Those are just so easy to spot."

Nowaczyk is interrupted by a stream of customers on this busy Friday night. He glances at the I.D.s of those who appear over 30, but scrutinizes the I.D.s of younger patrons, sometimes asking for a second piece of identification, or "backup."

"You learn what a real Belgian passport looks like," he continues. "All those Au Pair girls with their international student I.D. cards are laughed at."

Nowaczyk says a confident attitude is not enough to get underage students in the door.

Most minors, when they realize that they are not going to get in, "turn and run," Nowaczyk says. "They want to get out of here with their I.D.."

Nowaczyk says that others, displaying that famous "confident attitude," argue with lines like "You gotta be kidding me. They always let me in here."

Another approach is downright belligerence.

"It wouldn't be a Friday or Saturday night unless someone threatened to kill us," says Robert Parker, manager of the Harvard Provision Company, known as "The Pro," a liquor store on Mt. Auburn St.

The bouncers at the Spaghetti Club, which draws a more ruthless crowd than the genial Bow, describe a Harvard football player who tried to fight his way into the bar.