A long time ago, before there was an Internet, people used to wait for the yearly arrival of a large, yellow tome, that would show up on their doorstep, or perhaps in their driveway. This tome, which resembled a Book of Golems in weight, contained listings of businesses, organized by the type of service they provided. Some had listings, and many had full-page, black-on-yellow ads touting their AAAAA BAIL BONDS, AAA1-AC REPAIR, etc, etc. The tome I’m referring to was called a telephone directory, and also often referred to affectionately as the Yellow Pages.

As time went on, businesses started setting up websites, and became less interested in display advertising in the Yellow Pages, but the Yellow Pages mightily hung on, finding alternate uses as, perhaps, a stand to raise one’s computer monitor a few inches higher, or a doorstop, or whatever. But, alas, now they hang on just by a thread. Yellow-pages producer Idearc filed bankruptcy in March, and now, it’s R.H. Donnelley’s turn:

U.S. yellow-pages publisher R.H. Donnelley Corp (RHDC.PK) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, court documents showed.

In a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, the company listed total assets of about $11.88 billion and total debts of about $12.37 billion.

R.H. Donnelley’s largest unsecured creditors include Bank of New York Mellon (BK.N) and U.S. Bancorp (USB.N).

The company said last week that it was seeking support of its bank lenders as part of a potential comprehensive debt restructuring plan, after it missed a $55 million interest payment on a series of senior unsecured notes due on April 15.

I hope they can sucessfully reorganize, because otherwise, what are poseur strongmen going to tear in half ? (I know, I know, posting this video just adds insult to injury):