Amy Musher's Mailbag

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,...