But, let's face it, this is a strange lawsuit. When the Wisconsin State Journal made light of it in an editorial, a UW law professor, Peter Carstensen, wrote a serious-minded guest editorial scolding the paper for failing to realize that if the allegations in the suit are true, "the bar owners have violated one of the most basic principles of American antitrust law."

OK, the suit isn't frivolous. It's just stupid. Allow me, with many years in the trenches on this issue, to list a couple of reasons why.

1. The bar owners made a grass-roots, informal effort to curb the worst of excessive drinking on campus by voluntarily cutting back on specials late on weekend nights. They did this as a good-faith response to a possible 24/7 ban on specials that UW officials were thinking of pursuing. Here's a fact: The last thing anyone needs at 10 p.m. on a Saturday night is encouragement to drink more. The late actor Humphrey Bogart, asked in a deposition if it was true that he was intoxicated one Saturday night at midnight, responded, "Isn't everybody?"

2. It didn't save the bars much money and it didn't cost the kids much, if anything. Most of the bars that are named in the suit are packed on Friday and Saturday nights and don't need to offer specials to get people in the door. Some didn't offer them. Those that did often put off-brand items they couldn't move otherwise on special.

Finally, a note to the plaintiffs: Drinking something just because it is on special identifies you as a rube.