Before Thomson, Hawaii was on Virgin’s radar

Thomson Airways execs have Hawaii in their sights as a potential destination for nonstop flights on the new Dreamliner Boeing 787s, sometime after the planes are delivered in 2012.

Nice. But we’ve heard this before.

Three years ago, Sir Richard Branson was talking about the same thing once his company, Virgin Atlantic, got its own order of 787s filled in 2011.

Inquiries to the London company’s U.S. press office yesterday, however, turned up nothing but shrugs. Nobody could confirm that those plans are still active, and Honolulu turns up nowhere on Virgin’s website as a "future destination." So don’t hold your breath quite yet.

Palin’s Kodiak Island is big, but not big enough

Geography is not Sarah Palin’s strong suit. First was her reference to Africa as a country. Now, in her Facebook endorsement of New Hampshire hopeful Kelly Ayotte, Palin says she and her family visit Alaska’s Kodiak Island to "work and sightsee on America’s largest island."

Actually, the Big Island is the nation’s biggest, at 4,028 square miles, while Kodiak measures in at 3,588 square miles. So Palin got it wrong. Of course, it’s possible she was referring to what she defines as "the real America."