GAYELLOW PAGES, USA & Canada, The National Edition #22, 1997. Edited by Frances Green and published by Renaissance House, New York, New York. 544 pages, $15.95

Even Ellen uses the Gayellow Pages— as she did in a recent episode to look for a handyman, a fellow we'd all like to see—heaven knows-- every so often.

For nearly a quarter century Gayellow Pages publisher and editor, Frances Green, has carefully and painstakingly catalogued and kept current a mind-boggling listing of nearly every type of gay and lesbian organization or business, including clubs, bars and even homosexual dart-throwing and bowling teams.

If you're hop-scotching across North America, or just trying to find what's current in your own seemingly dry neck of the woods, The Gayellow Pages needs to be an annual fixture in your library. The national edition will soon enjoy its 23^rd printing—in 1998.

Of course you can access Gayellow Pages right here in Badpuppy's resource section. To give an idea what it offers, scroll down to the singular word "Publications." When you click on it, an alphabetical list of over a hundred gay publications will instantly be at your disposal including the whole of the USA and Canada. You'll be able to pull up e-mail addresses or, in some instances, read new publications from the seemingly isolated state you once left behind. Except that now, you'll discover, there's more happening in your old stomping grounds than you ever dreamed possible.

Gayellow Pages knows what's happening all around you, even if you don't.

"More than a travel guide. It's the encyclopedia of Gay resources in the United States," writes Ira Gruber in Seattle Gay News. Jeff Howells, in OUT (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) call the Gayellow Pages "by far the most comprehensive and up-to-date Gay guide…Hardly a week goes by that it is not consulted in the OUT offices."

"It's the perfect coming out gift," advise Romanovsky & Phillips through Fresh Fruit Records, and, certainly, Gayellow Pages is fashioned to impress anybody who needs to know there are such entities as hopping gay communities thickly scattered throughout the whole of the continent.

The 1997 edition of the Gayellow Pages contains a separate women's section too—for all states and provinces. AIDS service organizations—locally and nationally—are listed. These listings include telephones, e-mails, faxes, street addresses.

Hotels and guest houses, book stores, clothing outlets, community centers, counselors, dentists, health care facilities, lawyers, religious groups, switchboards and hot-lines, therapists, travel services, veterinarians, web sites, youth groups—Gayellow Pages makes them all available in a flash. This amazing guide has been informing the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender community since 1973.

I remember well when Frances Green launched the Gayellow Pages. John Francis Hunter, who—in 1972—authored the first of the across-America author's-trip genre, The Gay Insider, USA, told me then that she had an amazing perfectionist's eye for updated detail, always checking and re-checking this indispensable guide's minute listings. He told me too that she was a stickler for correct phone numbers and addresses. Since then, I've noted, the Gayellow Pages has grown pridefully in size and community impact, its latest edition (#22) containing 544 pages.

The 1997 edition—on its title page—refers readers to http:// badpuppy.com/gayellow. On page five there's a full-page ad for the now-famous Badpuppy Web site. One will also find cross-references by subject matter in a magnificent index placed usefully at the forefront of the book. While you can enjoy immediate access to the Gayellow Pages on the Internet, it helps immeasurably, believe it or not, to have the actual book in hand.

Once you've connected with the Gayellow Pages, all gay isolationism evaporates and you'll be happily cruising across North America—an entire continent laid out gaily at your fingertips.

So, if you want to be properly linked to what's going on –whether in cyberspace or on Main Street—Gayellow Pages is a must for your library. Look for it in your nearest gay and lesbian bookstore.

Perhaps you yourself have a business or a venture you'd like to list, or, if you just want to own a copy of this year's or next year's handy volume and can't find it, drop an e-mail to the publisher. Here's the important info:

Frances Green's e-mail: gayellow_pages@juno.com

Advertising Director, Howard Smith's e-mail: gayellow_howard@juno.com