I heard it was a popular strip bar

The city of New Westminster has given The Paramount, a local strip bar, a $50,000 renovation grant. A tax subsidy for a strip bar!

The Paramount is housed in one of the city's "heritage buildings" and the city uses the excuse that no other suitable tenant will ever go into the space unless there is better ventilation.

Al would be sad to hear, however, that a spokesman for the property owners wants a "cabaret" in there instead.

I remember something ironic. My magazine, which was then The Report, is very conservative and has lots of Christian readers. For a couple of years, our advertising staff sublet a small room in New West from a property management company next to the Paramount. I would go in regularly to fetch magazines to send to people I interviewed. Whenever I went up and down the stairs to the office, I could hear the base-heavy stripper music bleeding through the wall of the stairs.

Before you ask, I didn't hear anything else.