brass coathooks

We’ve all heard the saying “freeze the balls off a brass monkey”. Well in Germany they don’t have that saying. They say “it’s cold enough for you not to want to hang your coat on the brass coathook but keep wearing it instead”.

Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it but who are we to say eh? The brass coat hook displayed in the featured image of this post is one of a pair spotted hidden discretely behind a screen in the corner of a room at the Haus der Patriotischen Gesellschaft  in Hamburg.

That’s Hamburg, Germany, not Hamburg, USA where confusingly there appears to be more than one.  Clearly in the olden days where immigration from Germany to the USA was at its peak and the wild west was filled  adventurers of  Hanseatic origin the communications systems were not good enough for people to tell their fellow immigrants that, for the purposes of avoiding duplication,  they had already named one bit of prairie Hamburg.

Now you know. Don’t worry though, spring has finally arrived, I think. Just remember ne’er cast a clout until May is out, or whatever they say in Hamburg.

Ciao baby.

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