Here in Eastern PA, Verizon stopped sending them out a couple of years ago.
I used to work with a lady who trained therapy dogs on the side, Shelties. And she used to take them to facilities for people with some severe mental and emotional disabilities. Communing with the dogs had definite positive effects on the patients.
Well, she also collected phone books to take along. Some patients with severe obsessive-compulsive conditions would tear the books up as an activity.
I miss the books for the coupons that were sometimes included, and the magnet ads glued to the covers had uses, too.