You have my sympathies about flying out of Newark. I had the misfortune of being stuck there for 6 hours last year due to a problem with my connecting flight to Manchester, NH. They change the departure gate three times. They kept changing the estimated departure time (they did that at least 4 times that I know of) which is not all that uncommon, but the final estimated departure time was 45 minutes earlier than the prior later estimate. I know there were people who missed the Manchester flight thinking that they had time to do whatever before it would depart. I would have missed it too if I hadn't been checking the monitors on a regular basis.

What made matters even worse was, Newark has the most expensive draft beer in the country! Every restaurant and bar on every concourse charges a minimum of $8 plus tax for their smallest glass of domestic beer! That makes them almost $9 each! With a tip you're looking at $10 for a glass of beer. The only other places I've seen those kind of prices also have naked dancing girls....