I had an interesting talk with my dad yesterday, and it involved this thread. Remember a few months ago when Danna (I think) said it was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey? I got curious about it, looked up the origin of the saying, and found out it was from old time sailors using a brass tray (a monkey) to hold a pyramid of cannonballs, and when it got cold, contractions of the metal would make the balls roll off the monkey. Being a navy man, I told dad about it, and it stuck in his head, because he had never heard of such a thing. After he researched further
, turns out I was duped! Bamboozled! Taken for a ride!
There never was such a thing for stacking cannon balls and that whole story has been discredited. So I am printing a retraction.

Seems the phrase originally was freezing other-less-vulgar-body-parts off of a brass monkey. And they think it just evolved from there. Little brass statues of the Three Wise Monkeys were very popular collector's items starting in the 1800's, so the reference would have been familiar. So, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey is what it is!
See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil. Especially when it's on the internet!!!