For openers, screwdrivers now go for a quarter on Sunday. A ladies' courtesy card the next two nights will get you a drink for a quarter, assuming, that is, you're a lady.

If you're not, you can still drink pitchers for $1.45 on Wednesday, which is 45 cents more than you have to shell out between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. on Thursday.

And if you're still thirsty and standing come Friday, Happy Hour drinks will put you but 50 cents in the hole.

That's what happens when the local establishment, namely Father's Six, makes like the Government Department and reduces its grades, or in this case its prices, which is exactly what the bar did Monday.

"We feel that there's not much money around," Father's treasurer Barry Bornstein said yesterday afternoon. "People can't afford to pay high prices. Everything is going up, so we've done the opposite we're going down," he added.

Bornstein is gambling that a decrease in prices will mean an increase in volume. "If the volume picks up," he said, "we can do it."

If not, well, that's business.

In the meantime, as Bornstein said, "Heinekens for a buck. Can you beat that? That's really a special."