Intensity of the Idler

Lockdown has reacquainted us with boredom.

Two Idlers, by Robert Frederick Blum, 1888-9 © National Academy of Design, New York/Bridgeman Images.

‘I can excuse anything but boredom’, said the Hollywood actor Hedy Lamarr, whose pioneering work on the frequency-hopping technology that gave us secure wi-fi has done much to rid us of ennui. Until lockdown, that is, which has forced many to become reacquainted with boredom. 

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