"Hey folks! On Friday we'll be getting together for beer and potato skins at Local Bar of Choice for happy hour. Be there or be square!"

Yeah, we've all gotten those: the after-work happy hour e-mails.

Sometimes it even sounds like fun - but then Frank in IT needs to leave with his car pool, Barb in HR can't find a baby-sitter and the CEO is MIA.

Then it's just you, cheap draft beer and creepy Stan from accounting.

Let the good times roll indeed.

Some local people recently had the same thought. Tired of boring business happy hours, they had the novel idea to combine everything into one decent event. In essence, instead of many lame happy hours, just make one big one.

Voila - www.lamehappyhour.com was born.

As their home page proclaims: "Sometimes certain companies were just not meant to have great happy hours and you could be working for one of them."

I can't complain, because my co-workers and I have rollicking Thursday night excursions. But others aren't so lucky.

Lame Happy Hour was created when Cindy Novack, Sean Turner and Gary Turner, all with Procter & Gamble, met up for drinks after work on June 18 at Margarita's on Sixth Street. Also around for some post-business beverages were Conrad "CJ" Novack and Mike Russo, both with the Dinsmore & Shohl law firm.

"We figured there were probably happy hours like this all over the city," Conrad said. "We wanted to unite into one."

It's no singles group or support group, according to Conrad.

"It is simply a group of friends, single and married, who have decided that it is time for Cincinnati to shed its tragic status as a social vacuum," he said.

What started off as something of a joke actually took off when more people than expected attended a July happy hour at the Montgomery Inn Boathouse.

Perhaps the welcome environment, warm and friendly even for strangers, is what drew a crowd.

"You want to walk into a place and hear, 'Noooorm!'" Gary said. "Not have everyone ignore you. So we try to make sure everyone has that sense of belonging."

Somehow the happy hours have also morphed into the kind of organic networking event that isn't like one of those forced business deals at all.

"We're kinda sick of each other anyway, so we're always looking to meet new people," Sean said. "Sometimes you get really focused on your own world, it's cool to hear about the downtown business experiences of other people.

"It reminds you there's life outside of P&G."

Each subsequent event attracted more people. Because of the success, Gary was even honored at work with a team-building award.

It all sounds lighthearted enough, but the group is now leaning toward some more philanthropic efforts.

A Lame Happy Hour team will participate in the Oct. 2 America's Walk for Diabetes.

The group has also organized a Fall Crawl and Roll, slated for Oct. 8, which will be a bar crawl around the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky areas with transportation provided by buses. Participants must bring donations for the Freestore/Foodbank.

Perhaps most challenging is the group's effort to bring life back to downtown for Friday happy hour.

"Everyone is gone by 6 p.m.," Conrad said. "Downtown is like a ghost town."

This is the first regular happy hour I've seen yet that focuses solely on the heart of Cincinnati, and it's a fantastic effort. The bi-weekly events will keep young professionals right in the midst of everything at locales like the In Between Tavern, Rock Bottom Brewery and the Fifth and Vine Bar and Grill.

So drinks and noshes might just be the key to bringing back downtown is all I'm saying.

And, like many good things, these don't always come to an end - sometimes the mingling turns into a marathon.

"Typically a few of us stay a little late," Gary said. "And happy hour turns into happy evening."

E-mail mdowns@enquirer.com