In our house, we’ve come to look forward to “French Toast Events,” days that are inspired by the “French Toast Map” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Weatherbird used to create in the run-up to bad winter weather. You knew a winter storm was going to pack a punch if Weatherbird said you needed milk, bread, and eggs (bonus points when he added beer to the map, too). Well, Weatherbird’s latest illustrator retired last year, and while he said that he would continue drawing the character on a freelance basis, as far as I can tell, he no longer uses the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, and so I had no French Toast Map to help me decide how to plan for yesterday’s winter weather advisory. As it turned out, I think they rather underestimated this storm, because the first half of yesterday was an icy nightmare, which included cancellations all over the Bi-State, the closure of Lambert Airport for a time, and multiple accidents, including some with Metro buses and even firetrucks. Anyway, I hadn’t prepared for a full French Toast Event, but I was in a good place for a Waffle Warning, starring French Toast’s cousin, the Mickey Waffle, so we were still able to observe one of our favorite winter weather traditions, just in a new way!

