Ambulance taxis: You want to go downtown but can't afford a taxi. Many just call an ambulance and they'll give you a free ride to the hospital of your choice, whereupon you can scoot on down to wherever you want to go. Ambulances officials have confessed that moochers often feign illness just for the lift. Arson: There is said to be a list of 22,000 people trying to get a city subsidized apartment in Montreal. You know the deal, taxpayers are squeezed so some random poor folk can get their rent paid on your dime. There is a way to get immediately to the front of the line. If your apartment happens to go up in flames, the city will get you into one of these places very quickly, whereupon you'll be allowed to stay for life providing you cough up one quarter of your monthly income. One day someone will torch his own apartment building just to get in such a place.
Scalping: An old school St. Urbain street type Jewish gentleman has spent his life scalping hockey tickets outside the Forum and the building which replaced it. The fellow is so scared of being nailed for tax or other legal purposes that he owns no identification and has never benefitted from any of Canada's social programs.
Longest air shipment: In 1941 the record largest air shipment started in Montreal. 500 pounds of wool felt was carried 18,000 miles to Calcutta, stopping in SF and China. (source: Popular Science June 1941, p. 43)
Dog racing: Montreal, once upon a time, apparently had dog racing. According to one source it was here in 1928. I've not seen primary source material confirming other details. I once came across an article announcing that five would be launched that year but never saw anything else about it. The Montreal dog races saw the introduction of pari mutuel betting in North America.
Unhappy home: The house at the northeast corner of Westmount and Roslyn was put on the market not long ago. The wealthy elderly professional who lived there committed a murder/suicide, his wife being the victim.
I thought ambulances cost $100-$150 for a ride, even if in a real emergency you get stuck with the bill later.
ReplyDeleteDrSkrud is semi-correct. After getting my humerus shattered in an unfortunate and drunken arm-wrestling accident, courtesy of AlSouth (it was an accident, I should iterate), and being taken in a taxi from a bar in Old Mtl to the General, I received a bill from the gummerment for $150.
ReplyDeleteHowever, after getting run over by a car almost two years ago, no fee was incurred.
Also, I've been in an emergency room one Friday night when an older but not too old Hasidim gentleman was requesting (and demanding when his original request was denied) an ambulance ride home, because it was now the Sabbath.
My brother paid a $100 some odd bill after waking up in the hospital from alcohol poisoning. He past out on the sidewalk and somebody called an ambulance.
ReplyDeleteUrgence Santé cost me $128.00 from Valois Train Station to the Lakeshore General. Suffice it to say, I didn't tip.
ReplyDeleteA month after taking an ambulance ride from my home to the nearest hospital (2km away) I received a bill for about $115.
ReplyDeleteA) There is no free ambulance ride in Quebec.
ReplyDeleteB) If you torch your house, you do get free housing. In the Bordeaux neighbourhood.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Technology/Tourist+hating+chimp+shows+signs+future+planning/1370998/story.html
ReplyDeleteNews item for your fellow primate's perusal. Promote Chimples to VP Planning -- studies show he's got the grey matter for it.
Mr. Peabody
Some years ago I flipped my bicycle on a patch of gravel and a kindly stranger picked me up, mopped the blood off my head and called 911. Had I known it would cost me upwards of a c-note for a 12-block ride, I'd've held out for a taxi.
ReplyDeleteThat wasn't a murder-suicide. The woman was a Holocaust survivor who was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Her husband was trying to save her life but when he entered the garage was overcome by fumes. They were both excellent people (he was still working as a radiologist when he died) and it's sad to see their memories tarnished by this sort of gossip.
ReplyDelete