(MONEY Magazine) – When the Internet downturn started a year ago, laid-off dotcommers in Manhattan convened a "pink-slip party" in a downtown bar, an informal way to take the edge off unemployment. Soon enough, such events--by this time occurring nationwide--became formal networking opportunities: Job seekers wore green ID stickers, recruiters red ones. According to one (still employed) dotcommer in San Francisco, so many headhunters attend pink-slip parties that "they're kind of like job fairs." But a recent press release suggests that this once-irreverent tradition has now been co-opted by The Man once and for all: New York's Metropolitan Hotel is offering its house drink--a frothy blend of Absolut Kurant, cranberry juice, Chambord and citrus known as the Sexy Lexy--for half off the usual $10, plus discounted rooms, for those who can show "proof of termination." The "sympathetic" bartenders, meanwhile, will supposedly offer lists of headhunters and job sites. Just the thing for you entrepreneurs out there.

--ALEC APPELBAUM