They might just be expressions, but the truth behind them are the kinds of things that make me run in tight little circles with my hands shaking fast in front of me while chanting "eww eww eww EWWWW!".
"Nit Picking"- this does not mean that someone is picking on your knitting abilities or your sweater choices... it literally means picking lice eggs off of someone! It means that someone is going to enter your personal space so much that they will be inspecting you at very close range for the tiniest little flaw and EXPECTING to find fault with you. BUT!!! What it really means is that they expect that your side of an issue or idea is so flawed that it is "unclean" and filled with vermin that they will have to point out and remove.
"Put a Bug in Your Ear"- Anyone who has ever had a bug in their ear can tell you (I have not had this happen, but I have seen it on TV) that not only is it painful but it is also impossible to think of anything else. Those little buggy legs and feet stomping around in a sensitive ear canal as it struggles to turn around and get out, the ear canal swelling from the irritation making it even harder. When someone says they are going to "put a bug in your ear" it means that they want you to think of nothing else and for it to 'pain' you until you can do something about it.
"Cooties"- Guess what 'cooties' are? LICE! What is this obsession with lice??? When little boys and girls in the schoolyard say "eww, boys/girls have cooties" they are basically calling each other unclean. (Okay, no huge shocker there) What is shocking is that there is a children's game by this name and even an online version that can be found where the object of the game is to be the first to put together your bug and get cooties!
Just what is the obsession with lice and either wanting to pick them off people or be the first to have them?
Just where might this idea that blood sucking vermin could be endearing have come from?
I have an idea... and it just might shock you!
During the Renaissance in France "some Frenchmen would pluck fleas from their lovers’ flesh and keep the insects as pets—it was a way to have a small piece of their beloved with them always. The fleas lived in tiny gold cages worn around the neck and were fed a daily meal of the man’s blood." The thought behind this being that their blood was now 'co-mingling' and that the flea represented their love.
I am sorry, but no matter how cute you make lice or romantic you make a flea they will always be vermin... pests... unclean... annoying.
Now everyone join me in the "ewww" dance... it is easy-- simply stand up, bend your arms and hold your hands at chest height close to your body and start shaking them very fast then run in little circles (or spin) and chant "eww eww eww EWWWW!".
