rearrangement into, mostly, 1-methylpyridin-2(1H)-one was studied. The new techniques described here (methanol trapping with 4 A molecular sieves and Lewis acid-catalyzed reaction) greatly increase the potential of trimethyl orthocarboxylates. These reagents can be considered as possible alternatives to the dimethyl formamide-producing N,N-dimethylformamide dimethyl acetal and may sometimes be attractive