Maybe boredom is a backwash within another mental state, the one called mania-defined by psychologists as an abnormal state of excitement, encompassing exhilaration, elation, euphoria, a sense of the mind racing. Maybe our hurry sickness is as simple as that. We--those of us in the faster cities and faster societies and faster mass culture of the technocratic dawn of the third millennium C.E.--are manic. The symptoms of mania are all too familiar: volubility and fast speech; restlessness and decreased need for sleep; heightened motor activity and increased self-confidence. Of the possible mental illnesses, mania does not sound like the worst. Anyway, without mania, no boredom? These are the time obsessions of complex civilizations, populous nation-states with many technologies. In other forms of human society time passes differently.

• In case you thought boredom was a small matter. Or then again, try the mania questionnaire.
• I keep looking for alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.renaissance.motets.josquin, but I can't find it. Until then, this will have to do.
• Sebastian de Grazia's fine book, Of Time, Work, and Leisure.