[Sca-cooks] OT OOP balls and brass monkeys

[Decker, Terry D.]

Then there was the Brass Monkey Bar in Singapore(?) which is alledged to
have created the drink, Brass Monkey, before WWII and like the Raffles Hotel
was home to spies, thugs and adventures from around the world.  The TV show
Tales of the Gold Monkey was a revved up version of the fun and games that
occurred around the old Brass Monkey.

However, for freezing definitions I like
http://members.mpx.com.au/~wordforword/brasmonk.htm with the following
comment:

brass monkey weather
Jack Leonard: I have read that the phrase "cold enough to freeze the balls
off a brass monkey" is nautical in origin. On 19th century warships,
cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid next to the cannon. Since round
objects don't stack well, the lower race of cannonballs was constrained by a
lipped plate -- called a monkey. On the admiral's ship, the monkey was made
of brass and when it got quite cold the brass contracted enough to tumble
the stack of cannonballs. My question -- why is the brass plate called a
"monkey"?
Charles Hayes: The story you relate is made up to explain the saying. The
saying comes from the Victorian era when English gardens were decorated with
cheap imported statuary from India. The saying should be taken literally in
this context. For more details see http://www.b17.com/brass.

Follow the second link if you want to own your very own freezing brass
monkey.

Bear