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What is a Brass Monkey?
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apologies to the "AFU and Urban Legends
Archive" website, the "Webtender"
website and of course "The Brass Monkeys" whose content/names etc. have
been used without any permission whatsoever.....sorry boys...
Thanks to the Aleph Company, Alabama for their executive toys! Get yours too.... Thanks to our contestant entrants for some really "creative" definitions!
Subject: Re: Those Megaboss words for snow DO exist! Date: 22 Dec 1993 22:33:20 GMT In article , Doug White writes: >My favorite weather forcast predicting extreme cold was prefaced by the >statement 'Well, folks, you'd better bring your brass-monkeys indoors >tonight!' I haven't seen the etymology of this expression discussed here, and I can't find it in the FAQ (visual search only), but _surely_ it's gone through the mill more than once. How about I put my two cents in, purely because I like the story, then you can all ridicule it. The story goes: a brass monkey was a tray used aboard men-of-war for stacking cannonballs. Under exceptionally cold conditions, the tray would shrink to the point where the bottom layer of stacked shot would be squeezed until it would suddenly "pop" the balls out, scattering the entire pile across the deck. Hence: cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. Since I don't even know the coefficients of expansion of brass and iron or lead, I can't speak for the feasibility of this story, let alone its voracity. Me? I think the literal interpretation is good enough. Steve "will teach brass monkeys to sing soprano for food" Caskey |
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