The late Wendell C. Phillippi, former managing editor of The Indianapolis News, was given to conjuring up bizarre (to our way of thinking, anyway) story ideas and couching them in sometimes indecipherable language.
He loved stories that spotlighted traffic problems in Indianapolis and often came back from lunch at the Indianapolis Athletic Club with odd story ideas.
Reporter Frank Salzarulo, who was the farm writer and also the auto writer, went on a tour of eastern Europe in the early 1970s with then-U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz.
When Frank got to Belgrade, he found this missive waiting for him and, thinking it was from Phillippi, filed a traffic story from the former Yugoslavian capital. Phillippi, we can only suppose, was puzzled. But the story ran.
Frank never did figure out what the “eagles” reference was about (it had no meaning at all) apparently didn’t recognize the initials at the bottom as being the co-conspirators who authored the note: David Mannweiler, Gerry LaFollette, Ed Ziegner, David Rohn, Art Harris and John Flora.
Jane Stegemiller has the note in her archives and posted a scan of it today on the Great Hoosier Daily Facebook group.
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