Reponses to several points:
Art - Agreed, Ali is a poor choice, Thorpe and Carl Lewis are better.  The
basic problem is that there are no criteria.  How can athletes from
different sports and eras be compared?

Tom - Love the article on nerites.  Question: the illustrations ID Clypeolum
granosum but the body of the text refers to Neritina granosa, both (Sowerby,
1825).  Are these synonymous?  If so, which is preferred?

As to my most harrowing collecting experience, it occurred in my first
serious collecting effort.  I was in San Diego at a summer institute in 1969
and decided to start collecting shells.  I rented SCUBA gear and persuaded a
friend with a car to take me to "Bird Rock" in La Jolla.  I went out alone
for abalone (I was young and immortal), got a half dozen, and headed back
with an empty tank and abalones clutched to my stomach - fool that I was, I
had no collecting bag.  I had to snorkle back and the waves kept hitting the
tanks and turning me.  Every time I looked up I was swimming parallel to the
shore.  As I approached the shore, I discovered a feature of Bird Rock I had
not been told about.  The rock is mostly a shelf that was in a foot or two
of water at that point and I found myself being tossed over it at high speed
by the waves!  Obviously, I survived and actually held on to 5 abalones.