Walked down to my ol' corner at Drummond and St. Catherine this week only to find that the massive TV screen in the window of the top floor of the building on the Southeast corner had been taken away. I recall that it was permitted to stay because it was installed prior to the loophole banning such things.
The place had been taken over by a massage parlour. And right across the street, yet another recent rub'n'tug joint complete with new explicit sign. Saying that there's a lot of new massage parlours is like saying that Mayor Drapeau liked to creep around brothels in a chicken suit, it's just stating what everybody already knows.
There's meanwhile been a decrease in the number of strip clubs around town. So it wouldn't be a massive leap to assume that massage parlours are rapidly supplanting strip clubs.
I suppose that's a bit of a loss but they're surely a ton easier to run. All a massage parlour owner-guy or owner-gal has to do is put out his hand to take money and point to a room. No busboys, doormen, liquor board inspectors for the owner to pay off. It's pretty much the perfect business but it's a lot more antisocial than a strip club too, so the city is diminished by the switch.
The province is also knocked for a loop because it have fewer things to send its bureaucrats to regulate and snoop in on. Buttinsky, power-tripping booze authorities even shut down sexy serveuse joints by classifying an unclad she-works-hard-for-her-money nudist waitress as a "spectacle" (show). So there! Coolopolis sees a dark day looming when the province tries to horn in on the burgeoning massage business, ergo the poster at left.
Hah, to me the corner of Drummond and St. Catherine was one of my favorite video arcades hubs in downtown Montreal. Well, one of many really on St. Catherine street.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember right, the Payless Shoe Store was one, and the Ernest clothes shop was another. They each had two levels too.
I guess I could make a bad pun joke about joysticks, but I won't. :)
LOL, For a second I thought that Regie sign was for real. It wouldn't have surprised me if it was!
ReplyDeleteIf a Regie would ensure that all massage girls could speak French other than to say a couple of rudimentary phrases to extract cash at the end...would ban the sale of "Thai" massages as the ultimate rip-off...enact a tax on each tattoo or piercing so as to hopefully limit these limpy-inducing non-feminine accoutrements...mandate regular shaving of legs and underarms...then I will use my PLQ membership and financial contribution history to seek a patronage appointment to regulate the harlots and do my part to make this a distinct society vs a "da-stink" society
ReplyDeleteNext thing you know, in a few years they will have a commission to review the mafia takeover of the massage industry. Then they will get firebombed one after the other.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so the place at Drummond is what I think it is.
ReplyDeleteI can't ever remember seeing places like this right on Saint Catherine, downtown. I'm sure eventually it'll become too obvious and they'll get shuttered., to go back to sidestreets and the burbs.
Walked by that new one the other night. Where the giant screen was is now a large window and there were two girls in white minidresses attempting to dance in a sexy fashion. Maybe they're desperate for business?
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