‘Egg’
courtesy of ‘maxedaperture’

The origin of this story is the streets of Manhattan, but it definitely translates down the eastern seaboard to our fair District, and it involves a familiar turn of phrase for describing the heat: so hot you can fry on an egg on the sidewalk. Yes, it’s quite warm out there, and for yet another day, triple digit temperatures are on the horizon. Before trying to be clever in describing the heat though, make sure to check out the failures of a New York Times columnist who tried to prove the old adage about making breakfast on the pavement.

Andy Newman spent some of the afternoon in the heat of New York City with a frying pan and a choice spot of concrete to test out if he could get anything cooking. Success: melting butter, grilling some tuna. But, even in a few cheating attempts, that egg stayed runny and was not succesfully fried.

As NYTpicker points out, there may be more than one problem with the test, and it may involve the method of cooking our friend is using – a pan:

The cliche clearly states that the egg must be fried on the sidewalk. Not on a pan. That’s because the heat you need to fry an egg comes from under the egg, not from above it. At least, that’s how it works in our kitchen!

What ridiculous weather cliches would you like us here at We Love DC to try out? I mean, we’re just following the lead of the Times after all. The best the Washington Post did recently was stick an intern outside to see how he’d handle it. I’m sure we can crowdsource something better.

Dave Levy

Dave Levy is a PR guy by day, a media researcher on the side and a self-proclaimed geek. He blogs often about how traditional media adapts – or tries to adapt – to the growing digital media world at State of the Fourth Estate. You can follow Dave on Twitter for various updates about everything from sports from his previous home in Boston to eccentric and obscure pop culture references. Read why Dave loves D.C.