OT Yellow pages

[Marland]

The last printed edition of Yellow Pages has been dropping through letterboxes for a month or so now, looking under the category Civil Engineers shows no actual entry in my edition but suggest options of Groundwork Contractors or structural engineers .

The Joke used to be that it once read ? Civil Engineers see Boring?. Now I think I read that once but have I got a false memory created by repeated mentions over the years of an apocryphal story.

To get a little on topic when did anyone on here use them for help with any D.I.Y ? I don?t think I have used one for looking up a supplier for over 20 years now though in a D.I.Y context the volume itself once had uses as a prop or wedge and I did find one hung up as a desperate measure inside a portaloo on one occasion.

GH

[NY]

I'm sure I saw ?Civil Engineers see Boring? (or something very similar) with my own eyes in Yellow Pages before I saw references and jokes about it, because I remember thinking at the time I heard jokes about it "Yes, I've seen that myself".

We need people to search out old copies of YP that they may have hoarded, and see if anyone can find an example of it.

The only thing that makes it less likely is that it would seem odd to direct all searches for "Civil Engineering" (a fairly broad discipline) to "Boring" (a much narrower sub-discipline). If it had been "Tunnelling see Boring" (synonyms) or "Boring see Civil Engineering" (directing the specific enquiry to the general one), it would have been more plausible.

I think I last used YP for a tradesman (plumber) in the early 2000s, before Google really took off as a means of searching for tradesmen (or before all tradesmen tried to make sure a Google search would find them).

[Clive Arthur]

It was Boring - see Civil Engineers.

It was true, I cut it out and put in on the notice board at the civil engineering company I worked for, probably early 1980s.

<snip>

Cheers

[T i m]

<snip>

I can't remember the last time any of us used our paper copy of the Yellow pages but it's down to thickness of magazine in any case. ;-(

I'll not miss it (paper or online really).

Cheers, T i m

[Nick Odell]

Not quite DIY but I started advertising in Yellow Pages with a single-column display ad in around 1986 under Musical Instrument Makers & Repairers. By about 1988 I realised that none of my business was coming from paid-for advertising anywhere - it was all word-of-mouth so from then on I spent my advertising budget as a way of supporting publications that I liked[1] Since then, I've watched in an amused and detached way as Musical Instrument Makers & Repairers advised "see Musical Instrument Manufacturers" then "see Musical Instrument & Music Shops.

One year there was a perfect recursiveness for the musical instrument industry where each category advised seeing another category until it went back to the beginning without any entries. Next year the categories themselves disappeared. The only vaguely musical entries in the final edition are Music Schools followed by Music Teachers. The entry for Music Schools just says "see Music Teachers" It is left as an exercise for your imagination to suppose what's listed under Music Teachers.

I won't miss Yellow Pages but I will miss some of their classic TV adverts

Nick [1]Yes, I know I could have trousered more profits but that's what I chose to do

[Marland]

Thanks, Now you mention it that was the order I read it once. Sadly no such category as Boring in our final edition, Perhaps they think we are all interesting around here.

GH

[whisky-dave]

Did yuo see it on the one show (IIRC) they claimed that 1 trillion pages had been printed since it first came out. Now while that maybe true, they also said that it would go from the earth to mars 3 times.

What sort of stat is that as the earth and Mars can be anywhere from 40 million miles to 140 million miles.

The other 2 options on their fixed 3 times was around the earth or from the moon to the earth which are relivilty constant compared to Earth Mars.

[JoeJoe]

Haven't opened one for at least 15 years. Goes straight into the recycling bin.

[Brian Gaff]

If there are Civil Engineers are there also annoyed engineers or rude or cantankerous Engineers as well? Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Boring in the civil Engineering situation means boring holes into the earth. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Well it was a shadow of its former size anyway. So what about the huge number of older folk who never did get on the web? Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes at a recent concert at The Rose in Kingston, a fiend told me that Georgie Fame was having problems finding anyone to service his old Hammond Organs. He said modern electronic versions just did not sound or feel right.

I'd hate to be a person working on a Mellotron. Apparently Paul McCartney still has their old one and its unstable speed is, he says what gives them character. I was thinking of another word myself!

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes and if Mars was behind the sun from here the whole lot would be vaporised anyway. Its a pointless statistic, like so many we read these days. Brian

[Rob Morley]

It goes onto the shelf in the hall, and the previous (one probably still in its plastic) goes in the recycling. I may have used it a couple of times in the last twenty years.

[Max Demian]

You don't say?

[Max Demian]

Same with the "Phone Book". (When did they stop calling it "Telephone Directory"?) At least I can rip up the old one now.

They can use the rip off directory enquiries services.

[alan_m]

I realised around a couple of years ago that when Yellow pages and/or the local trades equivalent was delivered I religiously removed it from the wrapper and put it on a shelf whilst throwing out the old version - and that was the ONLY time I touched until I thew it away when a new version turned up. Since anything like this has gone straight to recycling still in its plastic wrapping unread.

[Dave Liquorice]

Aw, that means I won't have the pleasure of knowing so other person has been roped into delivering them. Did it once, 1500 of 'em and this was a few years back and it was 3/4" thick. The only plus side is that you get to know where the local postcodes are, get to visit every property and thus go to bit's of the local area you wouldn't normally visit.

Actually use it? Not for a long time, it does get uwrapped, placed on a shelf and the old one recycled. Currently trying to remember which shelf it is on...

[Harry Bloomfield]

We still get a couple of different 'local trader' type booklets delivered. They go straight in the green bin.

[whisky-dave]

Is this some sort of macho thing, now the books are thinner, you can tear them up. I bet even women can do that now ;-)