Random things which made me smile

The other day Himself shared with me a new revelation…. he told me the origins of the phrase cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. Now, I thought this was old news but, not wanting to piss on his chips, I sat and smiled while he shared his new found knowledge with me. At the end of which I happily admitted to my ignorance as to why said brass trays were called monkeys (AI Google has since informed me that ‘monkey’ is a nautical term for all manner of small things on board ships).

Except, on Googling yet further, there is another school of thought which says that – apparently – none of this is true, that canon balls were not stored on brass trays alongside canons, indeed canon balls were not stored beside canons at all – so they couldn’t have fallen off said trays in cold weather. Himself countered this argument with a “see here is a photograph of said brass monkeys”. I felt mean pointing out that cameras weren’t invented at the time so the photograph had to be of a re-creation…

Anyhooo, apparently this train of thought indicated the most likely origin of the saying being that it was cold enough to freeze the hands, nose and tail off brass monkeys – the brass monkeys being tourist items brought back by sailors in the olden days from their travels in the Far East (monkeys of the hear no, speak no, and see no evil variety).

Despite finding no definitive source as to the phrase, with Himself knowing so much stuff, it gave me no small amount of pleasure to find myself ahead of him in the game for a change 🙂

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Next I’d like to talk to you about what Germans are calling the idiot’s apostrophe. I fully admit to knowing no German whatsoever, so this is very much second third (maybe even fourth or fifth) hand but, from what I’ve read, the way Germans tell the world that someone’s in possession of something isn’t to add an apostrophe and an s to that someone, but to decline the word in a way that doesn’t involve apostrophes. (BTW, in this instance ‘decline’ doesn’t mean saying no, but is the grammatical term relating to how a word is changed in form to indicate differing functions).

But Anglecisms have been creeping into German for some time and now the Council for German Orthography has decreed that as of 2025 it will be acceptable to use an apostrophe (and an s) in this manner. And German language purists are having fits. One argued that relaxing the rules makes German more complicated by saying several different things can be correct at once. 

And, you know what, I’m on their side with this one… what with my being a self-admitted Grammar nazi ‘n all 😉 Or is this not the political climate for making jokes of that nature?

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And finally, I give you this…

M&S – that staple store of the British high street – have these offerings on their shelves in time for 2025’s Valentine’s Day. Last year, they produced a sausage which they described as an “iconic truffle flavoured, bacon-wrapped Love Sausage“.

We did not partake last year, and I doubt we’ll find this year’s offering as appealing as their packaging insists we will. But I smiled, while rolling my eyes, at the banana especially…

Did anything cause your lips to twitch this week?

© Debs Carey, 2025