Angel >> Deceased baby builder Dr. Benjamin Spock This week Montrealers found out they owed a special debt to the world's most famous pediatrician. In the wake of his death, a French open-line radio show asked the question, "What do you think now of Dr. Spock's methods?" One woman called to say that, if she could do it all over again with her son, she wouldn't follow Spock's teachings. She never placed limitations on her son while he was growing up, never imposed values. Today, she said dejectedly, her son is a professional demonstrator and agitator. Then she offered her son's name: none other than anarchist-about-town Alexandre Popovic. While there's a chance it may have been a crank call, she sure sounded sincere. And if it is true, then Dr. Spock has left Montreal with a most impressive activist legacy.

Insect >> CIBC, the small-town-deserting, laundromat-sabotaging bank Another bank bites the dust in Lynn Lake, Manitoba. The town's only remaining local bank has shut its doors forevermore. Although the CIBC branch had been turning a profit and contributing its part to the bank's $1.55 billion revenue last year, management decreed that providing banking services to Lynn Lake residents was not a priority in the face of their grand business scheme. The good folk of Lynn Lake now have to contend with a three-hour round trip to the nearest bank. Since the closure in January, local businesses have had to hold on to too much cash, residents have had trouble cashing cheques, and the laundromat has been short of change.