Well, in my youth it was a right wing reactionary rag that screwed up every story it printed. The single best example was the bold headline “Satanic Worship Comes to Central Illinois” on the front page. The story asserted that satanic worshippers had killed a sheep and who knows what else. About a week later a second page retraction was printed noting that a farmers dog had simply had a snack one day. Details.
The joke was that along with the Post Amerikan, Bloomington-Normal residents were blessed with the single worst right wing paper and the single worst left wing paper. Since then the Pantagraph has been sold to the Pulitzer group and has improved.
But what is a Pantagraph? The Pantagraph reports:
The Pantagraph’s name is derived from the Greek words “panta” and “grapho,” which have a combined meaning of “write all things.” Charles Merriman is the man responsible for giving The Pantagraph its name. In the words of Merriman, the name is “a perpetual injunction upon its editors to dip their pens fearlessly into all matters of human interest.” When Merriman named The Pantagraph on December 1, 1853, he was a co-owner of the paper with Jesse Fell. The Pantagraph’s previous name was “The Intelligencer.”
thanks, dude.
Actually, the Pantagraph DID print one great headline! When the U.S. decided to quit supplying water to the Cubans outside Guantanamo Bay (a US Navy base), the Pantagraph headline read:
“Admiral’s Orders: Dismember the Main”
…stevenc
(who used to deliver it in bundles all over central Ill’s. back in my ISU days…)
Actually, a pantOgraph (note the different spelling) is a mechanical linkage/device which allows a drawing, or anything involving a series of movements, to be duplicated on a scale set by the dimensions of the device. It was used by the makers of Pathe records to duplicate their master recordings, made on 6″ wax cylinders, to various forms of disc records…
Steven C. Barr
stevenc@interlinks.net