"Neighborhood" doesn't imply anything to me but locality.

Good call. OK, then I question Sue's liking of neighborhood bars as a category, until she qualifies the type of neighborhood.

My bank put a fraud hold on my debit card. I paid $274.00 on a cable bill by phone this morning, but instead they charged me $2,740.00

Yikes. I'm assuming the cable company has already corrected their error?

When I was young and went to bars for the sake of drinking, it was always dive bars. I could drink alone, and no one would bug me, unless it was friends also seeking the cheap comforts of home away from our own liquor cabinets.

I'm weird among friends in that I don't care to go to bars. I just don't see the point in paying extra money for booze I can easily drink at home with the added aggravation of noise, cigarette smoke and obnoxious drunks that don't have friendship-earned leeway. I'd rather have a laidback party at home and share a few drinks with my friends that way.

Though given a choice I'd rather go to a dive bar than a hoidy-toidy one or a *shudder* sports bar.

My bank put a fraud hold on my debit card. I paid $274.00 on a cable bill by phone this morning, but instead they charged me $2,740.00.

My brother's bank mis-somethinged a check for $67 by several factors of 10. As his voicemail message, he now has the automated bank message telling him his account is overdrawn by six hundred and seventy something thousand dollars.

Of course, it happened when he was in Boston for a conference with only his debit card, so it was a royal pain in the ass. It took two weeks to get it all straightened out, checks cleared and fees refunded.

I like a bit of swank in my dive. My ideal bar would be dirt cheap and have cushy velvet armchairs. And serve really good wine. (Something like Divine Bar, but with lower prices.)

Hec makes me laugh, as usual. Although I suspect I may be more like those people than not. "Ooh, how gritty and authentic." In a related note, I heard "The Waterfront" which is not called that irl, is open again.

Ah. My cable company has no record of charging me $2740.00. Apparantly they credited the wrong account.

So I gotta get a statement from my bank, or something. Or else dispute the transaction.

Who is your cable provider, tommy?

I question Sue's liking of neighborhood bars as a category, until she qualifies the type of neighborhood.

But what if the very fact of being nearby is what gives it the casual drop-in run into familiar faces appeal? A fairly broad range of neighborhoods and decors can suit, if the distinction is that it's not as big an event (or hassle) to go there as to go someplace further away. IOW, I'm not Sue, but I likes my local.

That sucks, tommy. Did you get a confirmation number when you paid them by phone? (I just got off the phone with Comcast about five minutes ago, and am now getting the number out of the garbage, just in case!)

My cable company has no record of charging me $2740.00. Apparantly they credited the wrong account.

Freaky.