Once Over Lightly

SPEAKING OF RUSSIAN, several newspapers have reported the growing incidence of alcoholism in the U.S.S.R. One report slated that things are so bad that it is no longer an Iron Curtain, it's now a vodka fog. A more serious report, in no less an august journal than Izvestia, called for a crackdown on drunks. It recommended heavy fines, forced labor, and maybe vacations in Siberia. Finally, the New York Times quotes a Russian source as saying that nine out of ten juvenile arrests involve booze. Russia must be getting like the town out west that, according to a speaker in Washington, doesn't go to sleep at night--it passes out.