The Meaning of Headlines: 'nitpickers' - education

The Washington Post published an article on October 24, 2015, with the headline ‘Lice is booming in schools: A new need for nitpickers arises.’ What does ‘nitpickers’ mean?

Encarta Dictionaries defines ‘nitpick’ in the following way: ‘to find insignificant details of something unsatisfactory, often unjustifiably’ or to complain, find fault, or to criticize. Therefore nitpickers are people who complain, or find insignificant details in something.

The article is about lice increasing in schools. Head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) are very tiny pale-coloured parasitic insects, about 0.5 to 5 mm long. The adult female lays white eggs on human hair (about 10 eggs a day). The egg is called a nit. The lice suck blood from the human scalp, and it is their saliva that causes an itchy scalp. Children at school often catch lice from each other, no matter how clean their hair is. It is a common occurrence, and the lice do not cause diseases. They are treated with lice combs and shampoos.

The article says that head lice have become resistant to shampoos and treatments used to kill them. Previously schools sent children with lice or nits home, but in 2010 in America the policy changed, and children with nits can stay in school. The lice move through head-to-head contact (they cannot jump or fly), but the eggs cannot spread because they are stuck to the hair. When nits hatch into insects, they can spread again. Doctors say that manual combing, with a special comb, is often the best way to remove the eggs, instead of chemicals. The article mentions a woman called the Potomac Lice Lady who is very skilled at getting rid of head lice. People go to her to have their lice removed. Due to the rise in lice, a number of individuals or companies in America are specializing in ‘nitpicking’ – picking the nits out of children’s hair.

Scorecard for The Washington Post headline is 50%. Nitpickers of head lice are not complaining (parents, teachers and students might be) but they are indeed ‘finding insignificant details of something unsatisfactory’ – they are finding nits that people find unsatisfactory in children’s hair. Insignificant in this case means tiny. However, I am nitpicking because I am finding fault in the headline. Lice is plural. One is call a louse, and many are called lice (just like one mouse, but three mice). The headline says lice is booming, but the correct grammar is: lice are booming.

Photo from webmd.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/rweb/wildcard/with-lice-booming-in-schools-the-potomac-lice-lady-is-a-sought-after-nitpicker/2015/10/24/c57e918c-7749-11e5-bc80-9091021aeb69_story.html?wpisrc=nl_draw