FoxTrot Classics by Bill Amend for February 06, 2023

There’s a trick to it. I could rip thick phone books in half when I was a skinny, weedy, 14 year old. I could probably still do it now that I’m a skinny, weedy, 76 year old, but they don’t make phone books any more.

There’s a trick to ripping phone books to make it feasible for most people. It’s in the way you splay out the pages at the edge.

What’s a phone book?

Any phone book can be ripped in half. Just rip it down the spine.

That’s CHICOPEE. Check with Johnny Cash. I know people who lived there.

A phone what? Book? Is that some kind of an app?

I was watching the Justice League on Saturday Morning and Batman told us how the trick was done. He said a lot of magicians will start wetting the spine, there by weakening the paper at a certain point, then they will rip it.

Pow and Bam!

I was going to post that there is a trick to it that makes it somewhat easy, but already posted…. (something in the way you hold it, you’really tearing one page at a time, but all at the same time, if that makes any sense)

We just received a phone book in the (snail) mail, I told my wife that somebody sent us an antique.

The entire population of that town work at the post office or the general store

What about slicing it in two with a katana?

Phone books? Right next to my landline phone…

Or, if you’re Ted Ray you can drive golf balls thru London phone books to win bets. (See: The Greatest Game Ever Played)

“A traditional demonstration of one’s manly might?” How eloquent.

I haven’t seen a phonebook in years

Baking the phonebook in a 250° F oven for a couple of hours works well, too.

Someone actually used to do this?

I’d hate to see Peter pull a muscle at tearing a phone book from New York City.

They still make them here in Mississippi.

I guess that’s about right, since Peter’s pretty thick, too.