Column: When You’re Hot, You’re Hot
It’s hot alright. It's so hot, I’m getting hot under the collar and I’m putting on my hot pants and eating hotcakes with hot buttered syrup, and that’s the hot poop. Idioms, shmidioms, it’s hot enough for a hot dog.
By Nancy Turner
Even an idiot like me knows what an idiom is. It’s the mother of an idiot. Nah, just kidding. It’s a group of words with a figurative, non-literal meaning. You can’t figure out what the phrase means by just looking at the individual words. As English speakers, we know what they mean, but we forget about making a literal translation to another language.
It doesn’t work.
Give up.
That’s an idiom. Another one we all use is, I’m feeling a bit under the weather today.
In the English language there are around 25,000 idioms. I might be mad as a hatter, but I am not about to get all hot and bothered about idioms. I’m dropping the study of idioms like a hot potato.
What really concerns me is the weather prediction for next week; you probably are too. Hang onto your sun hat. We’re facing the dog days of summer. It’s going to be hotter than six shades of hell. The Oregon climate will be having a hot flash. In this hot spell, if my A/C dies, I’m going to be really hot and bothered. I’ll be hot tempered, hot headed. For the safety of those around me, may my A/C live forever.
This silly soliloquy got me thinking. How many meanings does the word hot have? Off the top of my head (idiom intended) there are too many to count. At least a hundred, maybe more. It can dress up as an adjective that describes a temperature, rising from hot, to hotter, to hottest. It can also describe the physical sensation of being hot, and describe your food temperature, like piping hot, or warn you it’s so spicy it will make your eyes water.
Hot can also tell you not to touch a wire because it’s live. There are plenty more. If you have an idea or are excited about something, you have a hot imagination. We are entertained by hot gossip and the hottest dance moves. Do you remember playing the kid game of hiding an object, blindfolding one of your friends, and guiding them to the object by saying they are either cold or hot, depending upon how far or close they were from the object?
Piping Hot
We used the words hot and cold instead of close and far away. Forget that game. It’s time to go ride hot wheels. I’m not just spouting off hot air. Here are a few of the hottest, most popular: Hot dogs, hot plate, hot pants, hot yoga, hot chocolate, hot cereal, hot sauce, hot off the press, hot tubs, hot air balloon, piping hot, hot spots, hot shot, hot headed, hot tempered, hot springs, hot pad, in hot water, and for hot pink, go see the movie, Barbie.
It was fun watching lots of hot women, and men, but none I particularly had the hots for. They were all so young. By the way, whether you enjoyed Barbie or not, she’s inside all of us. Microplastics.
If you get tired of sitting inside your house to avoid melting the bottom of your shoes on the sidewalk (please note, it’s worse for dogs) than there are options. A hot air balloon ride would be fun, but the city planners haven’t gotten on board with this touristy idea yet. I plan to plunk my lawn chair in the shallow, sandy edge of Horsethief Lake and relax into the un-American activity of doing nothing.
Or you can rent a paddleboard or kayak at the park for $5 cash for 4 hours. When you cross The Dalles Bridge, Horsethief Park is just a few miles east on Hwy. 14. Well marked. Another option is to head twenty minutes east on I-84 to the Deschutes River Park. Drive beyond the campground, then walk along an open field. You’ll find picnic tables and easy step-in access into the river. The water there is cooler, and clearer, than the lake, and if you’re a drifter, you can drift in the gentle current. Wear water shoes. You’ll end up near the north end of the park. Pick up your floating device, walk back to where you started, and do it over again.
Trust me, it’s fun.
Whatever you do, don’t leave your dog or kids in the car unless you’re eager to get rid of them. Be patient with people. Tempers flare when folks get overheated. Be cool. Make the most of these hot days. They won’t last forever. At least, I hope that’s true.
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