WWTBAM Bored

Snowing and colder than a witches thorax...

Or as my Dad likes to say, "Colder than a well digger's wallet"

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

fuzzy

fuzzywuzzy wrote:Snowing and colder than a witches thorax...

Or as my Dad likes to say, "Colder than a well digger's wallet"

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

fuzzy

Sounds like our dads were two peas in a pod.

"Colder than a welldigger's a$$ in the Klondike"

"Better bring in the brass monkeys."



(I wish that he could have seen my son grow up. They would have gotten such a kick out of each other.)


P.S. getting 3-5 inches here as well

We got five inches here in Columbus yesterday with more forcast for tomorrow. Another 2-4 or 4-6 depending on the weather man you listen to.

Ohio folk don't know how to drive in rain or snow IMHO. Yesterday the police were only responding to accidents if there were injuries. That's how inundated they were. And, even tho the city owns over 150 snow removal/salting vehicles, only about 40 were out prior to rush hour. HUH?

I wish that it would snow here, just for a day.

We are supposed to get rain for two days. I'm sure there will be mudslides in Malibu.

We weren't supposed to get any accumulation here in St. Louis. Now they are talking about 1-2 inches.

It's been a while since we've had a good accumulating snow, though this one ain't gonna be it. I just wish we weren't so prone to snowstorms around here on my weekends....

lb13

Our temperatures are low. So low that sting is worried about finishing the season. We have a trip planned to go see the folks next week. If he can't work Sunday - we aren't going. We need the temps to be above freezing for 5 hours in the day.

I am thinking we have a 50/50 shot at being in Florida next week.

peacock2121 wrote:Our temperatures are low. So low that sting is worried about finishing the season. We have a trip planned to go see the folks next week. If he can't work Sunday - we aren't going. We need the temps to be above freezing for 5 hours in the day.

I am thinking we have a 50/50 shot at being in Florida next week.

It will be warmer over the weekend.

Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey,

A nautical origin involving cannon balls is often falsely ascribed to this phrase, but cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey is both literal and anatomical in origin. Although now the phrase is used almost exclusively in the canonical version given here, in early usage the parts of the monkey’s anatomy varied, as did the temperature, with the phrase being used to refer to hot weather as well.

The OED2’s entry on monkey includes the following citation from Frederick Chamier’s 1835 Unfortunate Man. While not in the form we’re familiar with today, it establishes monkeys as metaphorical instruments of weather measurement:

He was told to be silent, in a tone of voice which set me shaking like a monkey in frosty weather.

The earliest known use that parallels the modern form is from Herman Melville’s 1847 novel Omoo:

It was ‘ot enough to melt the nose h’off a brass monkey.

1857 sees the temperature reversed in C.A. Abbey’s Before The Mast:

It would freeze the tail off of a brass monkey.

These are followed by a string of variations from the American Civil War era and later. In Cooke’s Wearing Gray (1865):

His measure of cold was, “Cold enough to freeze the brass ears on a tin monkey.”

Other anatomical parts frozen or melted off the hapless brass monkeys have been ears, hair, and whiskers. The poor creatures have also had their throats scalded out, pants scared off, and guts rotted out. One account has the monkey’s leg talked off and one writer was hungry enough to eat the brass monkey’s balls; one hopes he was speaking metaphorically.

The balls version is first recorded in 1937 in Partridge’s Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. Although it is likely that many of the earlier citations were bowdlerized and originally referred to testicles as well.

The oft-cited nautical origin would have the monkey be a brass rack used to store cannonballs on board ship. According to the tale, in cold weather the rack would shrink, spilling the balls onto the deck. As we have seen, the lexical evidence doesn’t support this. While some of the earliest citations (Melville, Abbey) are in nautical contexts, they also refer to heat and other body parts. Furthermore, no one has ever produced a usage of monkey to mean a rack holding cannonballs (or anything similar). (Although there are some 17th century uses of monkey to mean a type of cannon and monkey tail is a 19th century name for a handspike used to aim and level a cannon.)

And the story ignores some basic facts of physics and naval life. First, while brass, like any metal, does contract in cold weather, the amount of shrinkage is so infinitesimal that it would not cause the spilling of a rack’s contents. Also, naval ships did not store cannonballs in vertical racks; the rolling of the ship made this impractical. Instead, they were stored in holes drilled in horizontal wooden planks known as shot garlands.

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:I wish that it would snow here, just for a day.

We are supposed to get rain for two days. I'm sure there will be mudslides in Malibu.

You can have some of ours. I had to shovel again this morning. We now have about 4-6 inches on the ground and the temps are heading colder. Single digit highs and below 0 for the lows the next couple of days. Eastern part of the state has well over a foot of snow on the ground.

kusch wrote:

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:I wish that it would snow here, just for a day.

We are supposed to get rain for two days. I'm sure there will be mudslides in Malibu.

You can have some of ours. I had to shovel again this morning. We now have about 4-6 inches on the ground and the temps are heading colder. Single digit highs and below 0 for the lows the next couple of days. Eastern part of the state has well over a foot of snow on the ground.

Thank you.

I actually miss shoveling. Even when I was pregnant, in Connecticut, I shoveled.

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:I actually miss shoveling. Even when I was pregnant, in Connecticut, I shoveled.

You can come out here and help anytime!:D

macrae1234 wrote:Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey,

A nautical origin involving cannon balls is often falsely ascribed to this phrase, but cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey is both literal and anatomical in origin. Although now the phrase is used almost exclusively in the canonical version given here, in early usage the parts of the monkey’s anatomy varied, as did the temperature, with the phrase being used to refer to hot weather as well.

The OED2’s entry on monkey includes the following citation from Frederick Chamier’s 1835 Unfortunate Man. While not in the form we’re familiar with today, it establishes monkeys as metaphorical instruments of weather measurement:

He was told to be silent, in a tone of voice which set me shaking like a monkey in frosty weather.

The earliest known use that parallels the modern form is from Herman Melville’s 1847 novel Omoo:

It was ‘ot enough to melt the nose h’off a brass monkey.

1857 sees the temperature reversed in C.A. Abbey’s Before The Mast:

It would freeze the tail off of a brass monkey.

These are followed by a string of variations from the American Civil War era and later. In Cooke’s Wearing Gray (1865):

His measure of cold was, “Cold enough to freeze the brass ears on a tin monkey.”

Other anatomical parts frozen or melted off the hapless brass monkeys have been ears, hair, and whiskers. The poor creatures have also had their throats scalded out, pants scared off, and guts rotted out. One account has the monkey’s leg talked off and one writer was hungry enough to eat the brass monkey’s balls; one hopes he was speaking metaphorically.

The balls version is first recorded in 1937 in Partridge’s Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. Although it is likely that many of the earlier citations were bowdlerized and originally referred to testicles as well.

The oft-cited nautical origin would have the monkey be a brass rack used to store cannonballs on board ship. According to the tale, in cold weather the rack would shrink, spilling the balls onto the deck. As we have seen, the lexical evidence doesn’t support this. While some of the earliest citations (Melville, Abbey) are in nautical contexts, they also refer to heat and other body parts. Furthermore, no one has ever produced a usage of monkey to mean a rack holding cannonballs (or anything similar). (Although there are some 17th century uses of monkey to mean a type of cannon and monkey tail is a 19th century name for a handspike used to aim and level a cannon.)

And the story ignores some basic facts of physics and naval life. First, while brass, like any metal, does contract in cold weather, the amount of shrinkage is so infinitesimal that it would not cause the spilling of a rack’s contents. Also, naval ships did not store cannonballs in vertical racks; the rolling of the ship made this impractical. Instead, they were stored in holes drilled in horizontal wooden planks known as shot garlands.

This is bigotry against primates of the brass class! I won't stand for it.

littlebeast13 wrote:We weren't supposed to get any accumulation here in St. Louis. Now they are talking about 1-2 inches.

It's been a while since we've had a good accumulating snow, though this one ain't gonna be it. I just wish we weren't so prone to snowstorms around here on my weekends....

lb13

It is sleeting outside....

Wonderful....

lb13

Sting is talking like we will not get the weather he needs to finish up on Sunday. Not only do we need above freezing temperatures, we also need 'drying' conditions. Overcast and calm will not do it.

There will be one dissappointed m-i-l.

Reminds me of mini having to tell her m-i-l that her Mr mini was going to be out of town for her visit. I have been asked to tell my m-i-l about the almost certain cancellation of our trip.

I am going to lead with my dad's procedure to deflect things.

I am a bad girl.

What sort of work is Sting trying to do so late in the season, Pea?

peacock2121 wrote:Reminds me of mini having to tell her m-i-l that her Mr mini was going to be out of town for her visit. I have been asked to tell my m-i-l about the almost certain cancellation of our trip.

I am going to lead with my dad's procedure to deflect things.

I am a bad girl.

Or you could tell Sting that it's his job to tell his mother that you're not coming...