Re: Review: When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

On 4/27/2025 6:54 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:

I listened to this one on the several airplane trips we have recently taken and on my daily walks.
 Premise: The moon turns into cheese for no particular reason.
 I enjoyed it even though it was not well printed or well bound. Being audio only, that would be difficult. Scalzi has his usual twisted strangeness going on and it is narrated by Wil Wheaton.
 I will have to admit, I would listen to W.W. read the instruction manual to a blender. He is a delight.
 The story itself is good. Think about what all might happen if the moon spontaneously turned into cheese in the matter of no time at all. What would it mean here on earth. How would it affect animals, people, society, etc. Scalzi covers a lot of ground in a rather cheesy way.

I suppose I should read the story, but....
Cheese has about 1/3 the density of moon rock, so a first effect would
a significant decline in tides. The Suns gravity would dominate tides,
rather than the Moon's.
The sun can raise the moon's surface to 250F. This is more than enough
to melt cheese, so I'd expect surface features to gradually sag until
flat, lunar day by lunar day.
The surface would, in the day, become a shallow fondue, which would be
unfortunate for any humans or human infrastructure.
However, its not even close to the heat of a pizza oven (around
500F).
pt