In the video below, the great Calvin Trillin details the declining role alcohol has played in journalism since his early days as a reporter in the 1960s.

We have no desire to return the news business to the old three-martini-lunch, Roger-Sterling-struggling-with-the-stairs days. But we do believe in the power of slight lubrication to allow a group of journalists, technologists, and business types to cross-pollinate. That’s the idea behind the Nieman Lab happy hour, which returns on Monday, September 17 at 6 p.m.

We’re doing it again at The Field, which is in Central Square, roughly 8.2 seconds’ walk from the Central Square T stop and thus easily accessible to anyone with a Charlie Card. (Map here.)

Two notes:

— Going forward, we’re planning on standardizing the happy hour on the third Monday of the month. So you can tentatively mark October 15, November 19, and December 17 on your calendar.

— This happy hour will also serve as a farewell to departing Nieman Labber Andrew Phelps, who is headed down I-95 (or the Merritt? more scenic) to The New York Times. Come give him a hearty so-long.