Massage parlour sex TV, a doomed hotel and a widow lawsuit

The great times at the rooftop hotel pool are done

Two things: I have researched and written a history of the Hotel de la Montagne, one of my favourite spots in Montreal, now under consideration for demolition. The hotel is only 30 years old and is the creation of a poor kid who made a bit enough cash in scrap metal (ever notice that scrap metal is the start of many fortunes?) to start a bar or two, then eventually a hotel. Here's the article.

Setting up short-lived massage
joint on the Main above Duluth

   Also, I went undercover for CTV Montreal last summer for a report on sex in massage parlours, carrying a hidden camera and bargaining for sex. I got quite good at it after a while, if anybody ever wants to negotiate such stuff, gimme a call and I'll give you the tips. Anyway, that report, by Caroline Van Vlaardingen and Karla Kaminski, just won an RTDNA Award. You can watch it here and here.
   Thirdly, Jeanne D'Arc Lavoie, 82, stopped paying her Readers' Digest subscription because she felt they were leading her on about her chances of winning prizes. Not only did she not pay the $478 she owed, she also sued them for $7,000.  The woman was represented by her daughter Linda Tremblay against the corporate beheamouth whose lawyer goes unnamed. Tremblay described her mother as a poor widow who never worked and never had much money because she spent her time raising her three daughters. They complained about such phrases as "you satisfy the criteria of gaining maximum priveleges," and "$772,000 in prizes, priority notice to Jeanne D'Arc Lavoie, who was apparently sucked into spending on more useless junk in the notion that it would lead her to win prizes. Somewhat amazingly the small claims court judge Alain Breault sided with her and rewarded her $4,000 + in the Feb 14 decision.