As anyone who knows me can atest, I use quite a number of colorful sayings while speaking. I attribute this to my Southern upbringing and just being in close contact with many colorful characters. I have started a list of some of these sayings that I have come into contact with. Their original meaning and other facts about the first time I heard them are very interesting.

''Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey''

In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannons fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon, but they had to find a way to prevent them from rolling about the deck.

The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon.

There was only one problem...how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a "Monkey" with 16 round indentations. But, if this plate was made of iron, the iron balls quickly would rust to it.

The solution to the rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys." Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey.

Thus, it was quite literally, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey".

''Quiet enough to hear a mouse piss on cotton''

This seems to be a derivation of the old mundane and boring saying "Quiet enough to hear a pin drop". Our friend and poet Marilyn is responsible for this one. She let this slip out of her head one morning over at our house. I asked her where she had heard that and she said she had heard it all of her life.