Cold Enough to Freeze the Balls Off a Brass Monkey
<p>Itwas -14º with a windchill of about -35º in Iowa on caucus day as stalwart Republicans donned their Carhartts and found their way to places like the Legion Hall in Lost Nation to cast their ballots in the nation’s first presidential primary contest.</p>
<p>Those temperatures were cold enough to “freeze the balls off a brass monkey,” an idiom harkening back to the days of wooden warships. Cannonballs were stored on a brass foundation. When it got ridiculously frigid, the brass would contract and the cannon balls would roll uncontrollably around the decks.</p>
<p>Lost Nation is a real place, located in Clinton County, Iowa. It has a population of about 429 people and its name seems somehow to be representative of our country’s condition. There, and at places all across Iowa, voters had the first chance at deciding who would be the Republican nominee to run against Democrat Joe Biden. In the aftermath of the vote, the campaign for the Republican nomination marches on, and, according to mainstream media, Donald Trump is positioned securely at the top of the nomination pile. But the facts say something different.</p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/rome-magazine/cold-enough-to-freeze-the-balls-off-a-brass-monkey-138586a78cc3"><strong>Learn More</strong></a></p>