Yellow Pages: Out with videos, in with Persian food

What do talent agencies, colonic hydrotherapy and Mongolian cuisine have in common? They are among this year's new essential services for modern living, according to the Yellow Pages, which adjusts its categories each year according to demand.

The authors of the 40th edition of the Yellow Pages, claim it is more than a weighty directory - it doubles as a barometer of changing consumer tastes.

Notable categories taken out from this year's guide include video libraries and machine rental, wooden toys and briefcases - in a section that reflects changing trends in working.

Also excised from the guide are typewriter ribbons, colliers and coal authorities, bellfounders, gamekeepers, and honeymakers.

There is no longer room for tape-recorder dealers or video libraries, which are replaced in the directory's technology section by satellite navigation devices. Popular leisure activities of recent decades in the guide have been revised before; cigarette cards and cine-photography are no longer listed.

In the homes section, pebble-dashing and stone-cladding, exterior design fads associated with the 1970s, have given way to wood timber and laminate flooring.

The restaurant guide section becomes increasingly diverse, with new listings for Armenian, Mongolian, Nepalese, Persian and Polish cuisine. Yellow Pages is also considering for its next edition a section entitled "fast-moving gourmet foods" to accommodate "exotic restaurant and foods".