Alert reader Sam Talerico contacted me this week regarding an article in which I discussed napalm drops on Tokyo in 1945.

That is wrong, as it was used the first time on Peleliu Island. At least , it was told to our Division it was the first time. The First Marine Div was there and The 81st Army Div was there. As a Combat Infantryman of the 81st, I watched Marine Corsairs drop napalm on Peleliu in 1944, October.

Sam's comment illustrates one of the difficulties I face in crafting each bit of trivia -- lots and lots of information, itsy-bitsy space. For that reason, I often choose facts that illustrate in my attempt to give a glimpse of the bigger picture in 50 words or less. Here's my response:

Claims have been made that napalm was first used on July 17, 1944, on a French fuel depot at Coutances and that it was used later that same year at the Battle of Tinian (the first use in the Pacific Theater). I wrote that "the jellied combination of naphthenic acid and palmitic acid was dropped by U.S. Air Force bombers on Tokyo during World War II." You're correct in pointing out that the Tokyo raid was not the first use of napalm. I had hoped that in referencing Tokyo, I might make clear to readers the impact of napalm as a weapon during World War II. I probably should have clarified that the Tokyo raid was not the first, only that it was one of the largest.

Alert reader Don McCollough noticed what he thought might have been a typo in a piece I published on tornadoes:

"The United States had its largest tornado outbreak in April 1974. A total of 148 tornadoes hit 11 states and killed 315 people in just over 16 hours. More than 5,300 people were injured in the storms."

Don wrote to me, asking if I was sure the tornado outbreak was in 1974 and...read more

Alert reader Jake Huter contacted me, regarding a column in which I claimed that someone standing on a California beach could probably see only about 3 miles before the ocean would disappear over the horizon:

"I have been told that the earth curves at a rate of 6" per mile. Your calculation of standing on a ship doesn't add up."

Here's the calculation I use:

Height (in feet)...read more

Regular Idaho Press-Tribune reader Fern Schmieman sent me this question back in 2004: Why is the x at the beginning of a word pronounced as a z - such as in Xerox, Zena, etc.

Here's what I found:

Thank you for taking time to send me your question regarding the letter X. It is difficult to say why one letter would take on a specific sound instead of another because letters, in and of themselves...read more

Pete Paradis sent me this question regarding a fact I ran:

The second item in today's paper states: "A Roper Poll, published in 1992, concluded that 3.7 million Americans may have been abducted by aliens."

I haven't investigated this poll, but my intuition points me in the direction of this slightly differently worded statement: "A Roper Poll, published in 1992, concluded...read more