Onto the Moon for a bit. Italo Calvin, in Cosmicomics, wrote a series of short stories, each taking as their conceit a different point from physics and the history of the universe. My background is in physics; I very much enjoy these stories.
This particular story is about when the Moon orbited closer to the Earth than it does now. He sets up the story:
“There were nights when the Moon was full and very, very low, and the tide was so high that the Moon missed a ducking in the sea by a hair’s-breadth; well, let’s say a few yards anyway. Climb up on the Moon? Of course we did. All you had to do was row out to it in a boat and, when you were underneath, prop a ladder against her and scramble up.”