By Staff
Due to a computer error the last half of last week's article about the Yellow Pages was lost. Here is the rest of the article.
Today there are over 250 publishers of yellow pages with the largest being Yellow Book and Transwestern Publishing Co.
In Edwardsburg we get the Verizon version and the Best Book published by America's Directories, Inc. which has listings from the Michiana area. Tampa, Fla. also has the Verizon version in addition to the Real Yellow Pages from AT&T.
The telephone book is used for more than looking up telephone numbers. Some people use them to file away money, love letters, or to press their ties. An armored car company uses them as extra insulation in the walls and ceilings of their armored payroll cars.
More than telephone numbers can be found in the book. The book includes emergency numbers, a time zone map, zip codes, and some include maps of the towns they serve.
With approximately 615 million books printed every year they pose another problem. What to do with them when they are no longer useful.
The average directory weights in at a little over three pounds. The phone book industry has not been very diligent in the process of recycling them. How to get rid of them becomes a pressing question. Some books come with a CD that can be loaded on a computer which takes away the need for a book and there are web sites that list telephone numbers. Some day the books will be a thing of the past.
But some people use them to sit on and some rip them in half, an old parlor trick. Did you know that if you take two books and interleave them side by side, they are impossible to pull apart?
Now if you try this, you may wonder what to do with two phone books stuck together? Now you have only one book to dispose of instead of two.