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.
All of the prominent domes that overlook the eastern part of the valley, including Half Dome, North Dome and Liberty Cap, are composed of the Half Dome Granodiorite. This rock characteristically disintegrates by sheet jointing and it forms nearly all the domes of the valley area.