January

The month of January in my mind is the perfect month because it's the time of year when you can take yourself out and walk through the icy streets, skipping your heels, whistling tunes from Italian operas, and house hunting through the winding corridors of Paris, Milan, or Toledo — all cities that have something to offer the person who is thinking seriously about the possibility of terraforming Jupiter, to say nothing of Mars; and, of course, the question that will pop first into your head is, "How can you even imagine terraforming the planet Jupiter when everyone knows that it's a gas giant and has crushing and killer gravity?" Folks, that's exactly the kind of challenge that gets my mind working overtime, and that's why my family and I will be discussing this important topic next time we go for a January stroll.