[AT] old expressions

[Greg Whittaker]

I knew it was something like that. :-) ;-)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "charlie hill" <chill8 at cox.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 7:50 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] old expressions


> Greg, that is "cold enough to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey"
>
> A monkey was a tray that looked somewhat like a muffin tin that was used 
> to stack cannon balls on the deck of  sailing ships.  Once they got the 
> balls in the indentations on the monkey they could stack more balls on top 
> into a pyramid shaped pile.  Iron monkeys tended to rust so monkeys were 
> sometimes made of brass.  In cold weather the brass would shrink at a 
> different rate than the cannon balls so that it would "freeze" them off 
> the monkey.
>
> Charlie
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Greg Whittaker" <gwhittak at fbconnectu.net>
> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" 
> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2006 10:38 PM
> Subject: Re: [AT] old expressions
>
>
>> "Colder than the balls on a brass monkey"  Something to do with the rack 
>> that cannon balls were stored on
>>
>> Greg W.
>>
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