Can Ya Hear Me Now . . . Let's Talk Phoney Garbage

 How many phonebooks do we need a year? 

How many phonebooks end up as garbage, strewn along roadsides or in ditches because people are so sick and tired of getting umpteen phonebooks a year which take up space, especially when many of these people have smart phones which will get them the number a helluva lot faster than they'd ever find it pawing through the latest pile of phonebooks, trying to figure out if the book is for Coeur d'Alene or Sandpoint or if the book is just business numbers or numbers belonging to real people?

(A)To get one phonebook a year with names and numbers of landline residents and local businesses or (B) to get half a dozen phonebooks, thrown on the road, that IS the question. 

Mark A or B and submit your answer to the link at the top of the phonebook below, the graphic that sez:  To stop delivery of future directories, visit yellowpagesoptout.com  where you'll find vital information about recycling those outdated phonebooks and how to "Keep America Beautiful." 

Izn't that nice?  I simply want the phonebook people to put their stuff in my mailbox and pay the piper just like all the other people out there who want us to have what we don't necessarily need.

I don't want phonebooks thrown on the ground under my mailbox and paperbox, especially out here on beautiful South Center Valley Road, the back road to the dump.  

Do the phone directory people have special exemptions, allowing them to litter up the beautiful countryside.  Does the postal service charge them extra, above and beyond all the junk-mail charges? 

Enquiring minds would like to know, and this enquiring mind would like to know if the Idaho State Legislature could please deal with this "legal littering."  

Can ya hear me now, Shawn????

Yes, this morning I picked up my umpteenth phonebook in its big plastic bag and brought it to the house.  I thought we'd already received our Sandpoint phonebook with residents and businesses.

Well, when I looked inside this one, the white-page section was really skinny and the yellow pages fat.  My first assumption:  yup, a lotta folks have cell phones now and they've gotten rid of their landlines.  

Wrong:  this turned out to be the Sandpoint and surrounding areas business phonebook, so the business names were listed in that skinny section of white pages, and then their pricey ads came in the plump yellow section.

Gee, I've been needing a phonebook for the Sandpoint businesses, not!  Nonetheless, I have done my civic duty and have brought the damn thing in its plastic bag into my house rather than wishing it would disintegrate out there under my mail box. 

BUT I ride horses and bikes and walk. 

And, in past years when I've been riding, biking or walking at a much slower pace than most folks drive their cars, I observe stuff I normally would not notice.  

In those experiences, alongside the numerous Icehouse beer cans some thug leaves all over our neighborhood, I've seen numerous phonebooks, still in their plastic wrappers, lying in the ditches or road edges covered with gravel and dust and obviously never picked up by whatever current resident living or no longer living near a targeted mailbox. 

And, I get mad, really mad, mad as Hell, in fact, at the thugs who authorize this type of irresponsible delivery.  

No better than the Icehouse thug, if you ask me. 

Okay, my rant has ended, but I do hope someone passes the word and tells the folks who put out these endless telephone directories that we'd have a lot more respect for them and their product if they'd just deliver their goods responsibly and with more care toward KEEPING AMERICA BEAUTIFUL than their current methods. 

Thank you. Happy Wednesday, and if you're living in the country and reading this before heading outside, be prepared:  you've got mail ON THE GROUND!