How does this "phone companies don't want to give you phone books" cartoon jive with Dex fighting tooth and nail against O'Brien's legislation that allowed people to opt out of receiving phone books?

Mike,

It's the difference between the Yellow Pages and the White Pages. Phone companies want to distribute the Yellow Pages because they make money on them by selling ads.

By contrast, the White Pages are only a cost to the phone companies, so they'd like to reduce the number they deliver. So, unlike the the Yellow Pages, the White Pages fix offers a perfect win-win for residents and the telcoms.

Better question...

Why do you have a landline phone?

I wish I had a White Pages book. They are so useful. I haven't seen one in years in Seattle, and assumed that phone companies had already stopped distributing them.

Thanks, Eric!

Should be noted that "local exchange" at the time this law was enacted was not area code, but the three digit exchange number (two letters one numeral) that prefaced your four digit phone number.

So by law, right now all they really are required to provide, for instance, to The Stranger offices would be listings for the EAst 3 exchange (i.e.: 323-xxxx).

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Trying to close the italics from above