The Boston Herald reported that Scalia had made an obscene gesture. Scalia responded with a scathing letter to the editor, accusing the newspaper staff of watching too many episodes of The Sopranos. He said the gesture wasn't obscene, but dismissive.
Monument Valley has been eroding for the last 50 million years. Once this area was a flat plateau of sandstone layered with shale. As the Colorado Plateau rose, vertical faults were formed and the plateaus slide upwards from each other. The faulting exposed the lower levels of shale to erosion.
Map of the Long Valley Caldera. Near the center of the bowl, there is a resurgent dome formed by magmatic uplift. The southeastern slope from the caldera down towards Bishop, California is filled with the Bishop Tuff, solidified ash that was ejected during the stupendous eruption that created the caldera.