How hot is it?

Posted by R. Berg on July 20, 2006

In Reply to: How hot is it? posted by ESC on July 19, 2006

: Hot as fresh milk - Said by Tom Cassidy, the rich man who flashed his cash in Psycho . Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) stole his money.

: Hot as the backlog o' hell -- From "Cowboy Lingo: A Dictionary of the Slack-Jaw Words and Whangdoodle Ways of the American West" by Ramon F. Adams (Houghton Mifflin, New York, 2000. Copyright 1936). Page 216.

: Hot enough that the dog was chasing the cat and they were both walking. -- Online discussion forum, July 19, 2006.

: Hotter than a hen in a wool blanket - "I still felt hotter than a hen in a wool basket and made and outdone." From "Shady Grove," a Kentucky novel by Janice Holt Giles (Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1967). Page 250.

: Hotter than a two-dollar pistol - Very hot, an allusion to cheap 19th-century pistols that go hot when fired. From the Mountain Range chapter,Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms: Local Expressions from Coast to Coast by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 2000). Page 376.

: Hotter than bus station chili - Kentucky man in his 40s. 2006.

: Hotter than hell in August - From "Cold Shoulder" by Lynda La Plante (Random House, New York, 1994, 1996). Page 338.

: Hotter than hell with the blower on -- From "Cowboy Lingo: A Dictionary of the Slack-Jaw Words and Whangdoodle Ways of the American West" by Ramon F. Adams (Houghton Mifflin, New York, 2000. Copyright 1936). Page 216.

: Hotter than Methodist hell - About as hot as it can get; an expression used chiefly in Maine. 1. Very drunk. 2. Very hot weather or anything hot. Yankee Talk chapter,Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms: Local Expressions from Coast to Coast by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 2000). Page 244.

: Hotter than the brass hinges of hell - Sounds like the door of hell to me. However: hinges of hell - farthest reaches of hell. From "Dictionary of American Regional English," Volume II, D-H, by Frederic G. Cassidy and Joan Houston Hall (1991, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England). Page 1016.

: Hotter'n a burnt boot -- From "Cowboy Lingo: A Dictionary of the Slack-Jaw Words and Whangdoodle Ways of the American West" by Ramon F. Adams (Houghton Mifflin, New York, 2000. Copyright 1936). Page 216.

: Hotter'n a skunk - 1. Very drunk. 2. Very hot weather or anything hot. From the Yankee Talk chapter,Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms: Local Expressions from Coast to Coast by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 2000). Page 244.

: Hotter'n love in hayin' time - Extremely hot. Cited as a common expression in George Allen England, "Rural Locutions of Main and Northern New Hampshire," Dialect Notes, Vol. IV . 1. Very drunk. 2. Very hot weather or anything hot. Yankee Talk chapter, Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms: Local Expressions from Coast to Coast by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 2000). Page 244.

: So hot that when you dig up potatoes, they're already baked -- Online discussion forum, July 19, 2006.

: So hot you had to feed the hens cracked ice - "I seen it so hot till you had to feed the hens cracked ice to keep them from laying hard-boiled eggs." Richard Edwards in "Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-Tales from the Gulf States" by Zora Neale Hurston, HarperCollinsPublishers, New York, 2002.

How about frying an egg on the sidewalk? (This is not a menu suggestion.)

• How hot is it? Bob 20/July/06