the fidgets

He explained: “When people are affected in this manner… they say they have the fidgets.”

It was bitter cold in the morning, she dropped her precious turnover in the gutter, Aunt March had an attack of the fidgets, Meg was sensitive, Beth would look grieved and wistful when she got home, and Amy kept making remarks about people who were always talking about being good and yet wouldn’t even try when other people set them a virtuous example.

Molloy, born in 1906, was, as a child, “diagnosed with ‘the fidgets’ and placed in a special facility, the Paramus School for Fidgeting Boys, where the treatment consists of spinning boards, hydrotherapy, insulin comas, leg restraints, and crafts.”

The residents of the Miami area, once projected to bear the worst of it, seemed at some points on Sunday to be suffering more from the fidgets than anything else.

Moms have been known to buy them by the bag to keep their kids occupied while running errands. But the fidgets, especially the spinny kind, are also driving a lot of other people crazy.