[658] in Humor
HUMOR: Brass Monkeys
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew A. Bennett)
Tue Jan 10 17:09:58 1995
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 16:57:24 EST
From: "Andrew A. Bennett" <abennett@MIT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 03:31:00 +0000 (GMT)
From: Espacionaute Spiff domine! <MATOSSIAN@aries.colorado.edu>
Date: Mon, 09 Jan 1995 15:58:45 -0500
From: bostic@CS.Berkeley.EDU (Keith Bostic)
...
From: mrob@ctsnet.cts.com (Michael Robertson)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
I found this letter posted on the Electronic Telegraph today. It
sounds like something Patrick O'Brian would include in one of his
books.
SIR - While reading the Saturday Column by Russell Davies (Dec. 10),
I was intrigued to see that the BBC had banned all mention of brass
monkeys and frosty weather. Why? This is a very old naval term dating
from the days of wooden men o' war.
Then, a triangular frame was fixed to the deck. This was known as a
monkey. In this frame were stacked iron cannon balls, pyramid fashion.
During very cold weather, the monkey, being made of brass, would
contract sharply and dislodge some of the iron balls, giving rise to
the saying "it's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey".
