The hotel industry has seen its share of questionable ventures. But the latest from porn mogul Berth Milton Jr. has to set a new standard for questionable.

According to a recent report in the New York Post, Milton wants to open as many as 100 “luxury sex hotels,” where guests could stay free if they agreed to have sex in front of webcams.

He thinks porn fans would pay to watch these so-called amateurs and estimates he could make about $44 million in subscription sales.

Milton, who runs Nevada-based Private Media Group, researched the concept by visiting swingers clubs around Barcelona, the Post said. But he emphasized that the hotel has to “be for non-swingers as well — not super-explicit where everybody's running around naked. That takes the style and class out of it.”

Thanks for that clarification, Berth.

— Jeri Clausing

A friend writes from Kyoto, Japan:

I'm told that I made history in Japan today. Someone stole my shoes from a Buddhist temple. Yasue (our guide) and the Buddhist priests at the temple were really very upset and embarrassed by it; they said that they have never heard of that happening before.

They're hoping that someone took them by mistake and will return them. Frankly, I don't want to wear them again if some stranger has worn them. And, I had a second pair back at the hotel. I kept telling Yasue not to worry about it, that things like this happen, and now I have a story to tell.

But, Yasue and the priests kept saying that this doesn't happen in Japan, and they need to resolve the problem. Every hour for the rest of the day, as we continued our tour of Kyoto, the temple priests were calling Yasue to report that the shoes had not been returned yet ...

I just got back from the police box. In Japanese cities, every neighborhood (approximately five blocks square) has what they call a police box. It's two rooms as well as public restrooms. It's manned by three police officers. Yasue and I went to the police box for the neighborhood where my hotel is. All three officers were interested in my case. None of them spoke any English.

After Yasue explained what had happened, all three started speaking very excitedly in Japanese and then they bowed to me. Yasue said that they were horrified at what had happened, and bowed to express their apologies to me. Very graciously (but awkwardly, too, I'm sure), I bowed back.

I described the shoes and gave the size. Yasue and the officers had difficulty translating my size into a Japanese size, so I put my foot next to one of the officers' feet, and they all said, 'Ahhhh!' and wrote down a size. I don't ever expect to see my shoes again — a small cost to pay for a small adventure.

Lest readers fret that our friend completed his tour in a barefoot state, rest assured the monks provided some replacement footwear so he could continue his journey — a pair of Crocs.

— Bill Poling