Once Over Lightly

ONCE UPON a time, there was a tribe of Indians living in Alaska. We are in their eternal debt. Their tribal name was the Hoochinoo, and their tribal pastime was the manufacture of illicit and powerful firewater. Word of this potent brew reached as far south and east as Boston before the turn of the century. One paper in that very proper town reported in 1899 that "In Alaska, they call firewater 'hoochinoo.' " The obvious contraction to "hooch" appeared later.