Amy Musher's Mailbag

By Amy Musher

Journalists aren't the only ones who wonder about the who, what, where, when and why of a story. TIME readers do too, and about 3,000 of them write every year with some variation on the five ws: "What information do you have on the effects of oil spills on the environment?" "Where can my wife get treatment with the new anticancer drug Herceptin [TIME, Oct. 5]?" "Who's been on your cover the most times?" (Richard Nixon, 55.)

Sometimes we know we're getting hit up for a homework assignment (we don't do homework); occasionally we find ourselves settling trivia questions. But, more often than not, requests reflect a genuine interest in something readers have seen in the magazine--and a confidence that we can come up with the right answer. Some recent examples:

A reader remembered that "TIME once described a TV character from the '70s as 'a human oil slick.' Who was that character?" The Fonz? Vinnie Barbarino? Nope. The slickster was J.R. Ewing of Dallas, as depicted in a 1980 cover story. Another recalled a photograph in TIME of two Peruvian surgeons, Drs. Francisco Grana Reyes and Esteban Rocca. "The content of the story," said the reader, "was about a modern-day brain operation using ancient tools from the Mayans." Did we run that? Yes, indeed (Oct. 26, 1953).

A jazz enthusiast from England asked if we had any word on Anita O'Day, the singer whose career began in the late 1930s. "She must be in her 70s now, and I wonder if she is still with us. I scan your Milestones, fearing the worst." Not to worry, we told him: O'Day just celebrated her 79th birthday, and she's planning a performance at New York City's Carnegie Hall next July.

Then there was the fellow from California who was searching for a 1956 story "about a young woman and her son who escaped Iraq and a horrible marriage." Only after we sent a copy of the story did he reveal to us that "the little boy in the photo is me." Another photo intrigued an Argentine woman who asked about a picture in our 75th-anniversary issue showing a little girl receiving a polio shot. Even though the caption said the photo was taken in Alabama, and our reader had no recollection of ever having lived there, she thought, just maybe, it was she. Go figure.

Here's a head scratcher. A reader wrote, "In the '50s there was a filmed musical called Scheherezade. Who played the Russian navy officer who was able to hide a cigarette in his mouth?" The movie was Song of Scheherezade; it was released in 1947; and the captain was Brian Donlevy.

And so it goes. "What does wonk mean?" "How many novelists have been on your cover?" "Can you find a letter my son wrote to you in 1970?" "How much do actors make?" Oddly enough, no one has yet asked why the sky is blue.