Catch and release fishing may be cruelty masquerading as political correctness

If by some fiat I had to restrict all this writing to one sentence, this is the one I would choose: The summit of Mt. Everest is marine limestone.

With their four-dimensional minds, and in their interdisciplinary ultra verbal way, geologists can wiggle out of almost anything.

Rocks are records of events that took place at the time they formed. They are books. They have a different vocabulary, a different alphabet, but you learn how to read them.

In making war with nature, there was risk of loss in winning.

The doctor listens in with a stethoscope and hears sounds of a warpath Indian drum.

Taking things from one source is plagiarism; taking things from several sources is research.

Writing is a suspension of life in order to re-create life

I can't stand a sentence until it sounds right.

Almost all Americans would recognize Anchorage, because Anchorage is that part of any city where the city has burst its seams and extruded Colonel Sanders.

I used to sit in class and listen to the terms come floating down the room like paper airplanes.

She didn't struggle and so she didn't grow

The gun bounced so much in her shaky grasp that if she did fire, he’d likely be the one to catch the bullet.

I have learned that as soon as you introduce controls on human behavior, you lose the game, particularly when those controls are at odds with the work.

Dimples crinkle up the skin near his lips. I will not look at his lips. How can he never have used those? That’s a crime against humanity right there.

You know, Mad Men is notoriously secretive with its plotlines, even with exposing them to actors on the show.

Girls are twice as likely as boys to avoid leadership roles for fear of being deemed 'bossy' by their peers.

I was playing like a rugby league player with 14 rugby players.

God, help me to see others not as enemies or as ungodly but rather as thirsty people. And give me the courage and compassion to offer your Living Water, which alone quenches deep thirst.

I wouldn't take the Pope too seriously. He's a Pole first, a pope second, and maybe a Christian third.

To be gentle, tolerant, wise and reasonable requires a goodly portion of toughness.