Do you keep a telephone directory on hand? Do you use it?

Writing this post made me stop and wonder: could I have called for help any faster by any other means? I don’t think so.

What would we do today? if we don’t still keep a phone book close at hand, that is (I do—do you? but it’s getting thinner all the time).

Turning on the computer, waiting for it to boot, launching Google, typing in keywords correctly, finding a site, reading it—all the while my insides were being eaten by Clorox? How could that have been quicker than turning right to the emergency numbers in the front of the White Pages and reaching a human being straight away, without a menu tree?

If I dialed 0, could I have got to poison control any faster?

Even calling 911 wouldn’t have brought help as fast as I could get to the corner store, and I didn’t need an ambulance—just a quart of whole milk.

Are we better off? or further from help than we used to be?