bored to distraction

Tim Bax was born in Dar-cs-Salaam, Tanganyika, bored in school in England, further bored to distraction in Canada (my words, not his), and finally returned to Africa at age 19, seeking nothing more than a paying job, something interesting to do, and a little adventure.

First described in zoo animals who were bored to distraction, many of our pets chase their tails, pace relentlessly, hop from one foot to the other, over-groom or bark, bark, bark.

I rather expect you are bored to distraction at receiving letters about your books.

Bored to distraction by what she saw as Merthyr's small-town provincialism, she seems to have been addicted to the romantic notion that you can achieve anything if you risk enough.

BORED to distraction during the closing minutes of Sunday's shocker, just before Arsenal and Manchester United wisely abandoned trying to play football in favour of a little light brawling, I was flicking through the papers when I came across a column by Terry Venables.

We erroneously assume that, when we have nothing better to do and are bored to distraction - retired, perhaps, or ill - then we can write or paint; but, above all, don't take crafts seriously!

But Costello was a misogynist for the thinking woman, as "This Year's Girl," a characteristically heightened, dash-of-paranoia response to the Stones' long-ago "Stupid Girl," shows: "Still you're hopin' that she's well-spoken 'cause she's this year's girl/You want her broken with her mouth wide open 'cause she's this year's girl/Never know what is the real attraction/All these promises of satisfaction/while she's being bored to distraction being this year's girl." Then there were "Lipstick Vogue" and Armed Forces' "Two Little Hitlers" to underline the metaphoric (and real) connections in Costello's work between the personal and the political.