Toohey

Toohey had referred to Wynand frequently and not respectfully; the Wynand papers had called Toohey every name fit to print.

The Fountainhead Rand, Ayn 1943

"What makes the scene so boring?" asks Mr. Toohey, with Prufrockian world weariness.

Accidie? Ennui? Sigh . . . Elizabeth Lowry 2011

Mr. Toohey suggests that the sensation of boredom has evolved to alert us to potentially deleterious situations that we must steer clear of if worse isn't to follow: It is a warning mechanism, a foretaste of the "crippling psychological pain" of possible depression and breakdown, in the same way that a pain in the chest can point us to imminent organ failure.

Accidie? Ennui? Sigh . . . Elizabeth Lowry 2011

A classicist by training, Mr. Toohey argues, to the contrary, that boredom has always been with us, which seems plausible enough if this ancient graffito from a much-scribbled-on wall in Pompeii is anything to go by: Wall!

Accidie? Ennui? Sigh . . . Elizabeth Lowry 2011

Mr. Toohey following Heidegger and the German sociologist Martin Doehlemann draws a further distinction between what he calls "simple" and "existential" boredom.

Accidie? Ennui? Sigh . . . Elizabeth Lowry 2011

Mr. Toohey presents his case with verve, and although Eliot doesn't make the final cut, plenty of other examples from history, literature and art do.

Accidie? Ennui? Sigh . . . Elizabeth Lowry 2011

Mr. Toohey added that many companies in these sectors are still attractively valued and have room to expand their profit margins by being more productive.

Confidence Ebbs Before Earnings Jonathan Cheng 2011

Mr. Toohey detects a similar telltale sign in the right hand held up to her head by the young woman who is having her hair vigorously brushed in Degas's "La Coiffure": "The position of her arm is strongly evocative of boredom's body language."

Accidie? Ennui? Sigh . . . Elizabeth Lowry 2011

John Toohey , vice president of equity investments at USAA Investment Management, said he's favoring stocks in so-called defensive sectors that are less sensitive to economic growth.

Confidence Ebbs Before Earnings Jonathan Cheng 2011

But to interpret the head-in-hands posture of the sleeping disciples in Giovanni di Pietro's "The Agony in the Garden" as indicators of boredom rather than misery and exhaustion, as Mr. Toohey determinedly does, is to make a little go a very long way.

Accidie? Ennui? Sigh . . . Elizabeth Lowry 2011