Path: text1.nnrp.aus1!firehose2!nntp4!intern1.nntp.aus1.giganews.com!border1.nntp.aus1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!newsfeed.tpinternet.pl!news.atman.pl!news.intercom.pl!f124.n480!f127.n480!f112.n480!f200.n2432!f605.n774!f500.n123!f140.n123!not-for-mail
Newsgroups: fido.mensa
Distribution: fido
From: PAT SHUFF 
Date: Sat, 08 Nov 03 04:09:46 +0100
Subject: Spring enquiry...
Message-ID: 
Organization: Try Our Web Based QWK: DOCSPLACE.ORG
 2437/40
Lines: 58
Xref: intern1.nntp.aus1.giganews.com fido.mensa:51



   I'm sorry George. I composted a message earlier IRT this but
   the spellchecker ate it, sent your original and left me PO'd
   so I quit. 

   So anyways...that's an interesting tale. I'd heard the saying
   but never the rest of the story. My earlier eaten compost
   referenced American rail track gauges, Roman chariots and
   the Compendium of Lost Words (http://phrontistery.50megs.com/clw.html)
   ...all IRT the frozen monkeyballs. But as earlier stated
   it got eaten. Oh well. 
 

-> Apparently, in days of olde, when ships used cannons for
-> offense/defense, they stacked the cannonballs up in a pyramid shape atop
-> a little brass device called a "monkey" that had holes in it to hold thi
-> bottom row of balls. . . Because brass contracts in the cold more than
-> the steel cannonballs, when it got cold enough, the bottom 'brass
-> monkey' would contract so as to loosen the bottom layer of balls from no
-> longer having a well-seated connection, and the whole stack would go
-> flying, thus the saying, "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass
-> monkey"!





   *Origin: American Express: Don't leave Rome without it.