On Thu, 8 Jan 2004 21:08:14 +0000 (UTC), in a place far, far away,
(Eric Chomko) made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

: uhh... I don't think such a moon can exist at all - well, not such a moon
: which one side always faced the planet, anyways.

Actually our moon is exactly like that WRT the earth. Only one side of our
moon faces the earth. It is in what is called a synchronous rotation. The
earth's gravational force is so strong in comparison to the moon's ability
to rotate that its period of rotation is equal to its orbital period.
Synchronous rotation is not at all rare.

It has nothing to do with the relative strength of earth's gravity.
The moon is in a tidal lock, which is just a different way of saying
that it's in a gravity-gradient mode, because it's not perfectly
spherical. The heavier part is always facing toward, or away from,
the earth because any deviation from that position causes a restoring
torque.