Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for October 07, 2016

Didn’t they notice the declining ad revenues?

Both of which make it even harder to look up a number.

BIG NEWS? Where’s he been for the last 25 years?

Later, a lot of people on the internet tell Rat that they do use the phone book and list the reasons for it, and Rat whines, “I’m trying to feel superior! Stop reminding me I’m not!”

S’pose, Rat, not everyone has a Smartphone or the Internet, then they’d still want a phonebook?

If we could download a searchable phone book, that would be a boon. Otherwise, these books are just waste of some good oxygen-producing trees and ground rags.

Hmm, hard to imagine smashing the Roadrunner with a phone book, but I guess if you’ve tried everything else . . .

My homeowners association classifies phone directories as “debris” and threatens to fine you if one gets left outside your door.

@GoComics, none of the above posts qualify:

*Our apologies, but to fight off abuse from the spammers, we now limit our comments to include text with bold and italics only.

Acme. Great idea for rejection.

My brother will call me from his smartphone to ask me to look up a small local business in my phone book yellow pages to find out what their hours are. Not everything is on the web.

’Okay Google,

What are phonebooks used for?"

I’ve had a new phone book on my shelf every year for quite a while. I haven’t actually used one in about a decade. I can even remember the last time I did. I was looking for a doctor and it took me to look under physicians. Never bothered again.

Time to go back to selling weapons to coyotes.

A phone book is often easier to use than the Internet. If, that is, you have one for the area you’re calling (Although I’m surprised that you can’t download complete books for different areas from the “phone company”) And you’re not looking for a cell phone number. And you’re used to looking things up in a physical book; some people are surprisingly inept at that. Go Comics seems not even to allow me to do simple paragraph breaks now (unless it starts working again with this post).

A lot of times around special occasions people like to post cards, for like Thanksgiving and Christmas, some for Halloween later this month. Not complaining, but it would have been nice if some forethought were used. Here’s what my card would look like, in classic GC style:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

I used to get ONE book a year before the internet, now I get TWO twice a year. I haven’t looked in one for over a decade.

I’m confused by the new policy, I still see comments even though they aren’t BOLD! Could GoComics post what the heck is going on other than the stupid OUR APOLOGIES thing!

I have a phone book under my 8-track tape player!

I have a smartphone and internet and I still use the phone book. The yellow pages, anyway. Plus there are some good coupons.

Ahh, the phone book. Like a lot of novels, a lot of characters but no plot.

The Internet is hopeless as a doorstop and smartphones are way too crunchy.

I wonder if the company chose the name “Acme” because it would be first in the phone book.

a town of 25,000 -- 3 phonebooks annually

Honestly please don’t keep distributing phone books unsolicited. My recycling bin is already too full

For once, I agree with Rat.

eh not everyone has internet, 20% of the USA still can’t get anything except dialup and many of those companies are going to be stopping it soon.

I still use these, I like the smaller ones so I put them under the seat of my car to use while I’m out and about.

The classic old Yellow Pages.

xxx

No one has complained about the fact that looking up most white-page information now costs money on the Internet. And I have to pay the phone company for a directory listing, so both ways are making money.

I know you can look up Yellow Pages listings on their web-page, and I’ll wager they have a phone app as well. Which means your phone listing advertising is still useful, as the ad goes both in the book and on the web and on the app.

Picked this little gem up at Alley Oop

UU Admin GoComics PRO Member said, 6 minutes ago

Questions about the change to our commenting system are addressed in our latest blog post:

http://blogs.gocomics.com/2016/10/talking-bout-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes-or-some-explanation-on-recent-updates-to-gocomics.html

Left a note too !

I tried to drop the yellow pages ad for my business, called in and was told OK, then 3 months later, the bill keeps coming.The automatic renewal is now canceled, but I’m stuck paying until next September.

Would hate to not have my phone book. Don’t need a smartphone. The internet might be fine for looking up a phone number for a business I know about, but it’s garbage for finding somebody in comparison to the yellow pages.

Rat meant “Not one person under 75”

It’s interesting, I actually haven’t had a phone book left outside my apartment door in years. I used to get them and now I don’t.

Have they given up on distributing them in my area, or have they just given up distributing them to residences that primarily attract a younger crowd, who are more likely to throw the book away the moment they see it?

I tried to use the internet to look up a phone number, but I wasn’t able to. I tried at least 10 different sites. They all toke several minutes to “process”, and “build a database”, then they wanted to show me criminal records, legal etc, and wanted me to pay for it. I couldn’t find any site that would just show me a simple white page-like telephone number. I finally gave up.

Smarmy Rat is such a big dork!

Just about everything he said today is WRONG.

So, I figure panel 3 is totally sarcastic….

No pocket phone here and I sure ain’t gonna fire this beast up just to look up a number.OTOH, I may only look up a number 2-3 times a year.

Huh, I actually prefer phone books to internet lookup…and I’m a programmer and IT!

Recall too, the entire country didn’t jump into the technology age as quickly as the major cities, and coastal states did. Some folks depend on a phone book because they don’t use the 411 service, internet or have use of a smartphone. Some are a bit apprehensive using a wireless item, believing it can be monitored or intercepted. (yes, everything can be, but don’t frighten them with that just yet). Either way, ACME is in trouble, as they fade into history.