Dr Johnson's bad habit

Fred: Why do you always do that treading thing Tablet?

Tablet: I have to do it, I can't settle down otherwise. (One-two, one-two...)

Fred: It's so-o-o boring, and you look ridiculous. Just relax!

Tablet: You don't understand - I have to do it - it's a ritual. (One-two, one-two...)

Fred: *Stre-e-e-etch* You're OCD you know, Tablet? You are.

Tablet: (One-two, one-two, one...)




Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) the compiler of the first dictionary, is thought to have suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. His biographer, James Boswell, described the behaviour that
appeared to me some superstitious habit, which he had contracted early, and from which he had never called upon his reason to disentangle him. This was his anxious care to go out or in at a door or passage, by a certain number of steps from a certain point, or at least so as that either his right or left foot, (I am not certain which,) should constantly make the first actual movement when he came close to the door or passage. Thus I conjecture: for I have, upon innumerable occasions, observed him suddenly stop, and then seem to count his steps with a deep earnestness; and when he had neglected or gone wrong in this sort of magical movement, I have seen him go back again, put himself in a proper posture to begin the ceremony, and, having gone through it, break from his abstraction, walk briskly on, and join his companion.

A woman who knew him described
his extraordinary gestures or antics with his hands and feet, particularly when passing over the threshold of a Door, or rather before he would venture to pass through any doorway. On entering Sir Joshua's house with poor Mrs Williams, a blind lady who lived with him, he would quit her hand, or else whirl her about on the steps as he whirled and twisted about to perform his gesticulations; and as soon as he had finish'd, he would give a sudden spring and make such an extensive stride over the threshold, as if he were trying for a wager how far he could stride.

A small child, the niece of a friend, asked him:
"Pray Dr. Johnson, why do you make such strange gestures?" "From a bad habit, (he replied.) Do you, my dear, take care to guard against bad habits."

Dr Johnson had a cat called Hodge who he fed on oysters (being very cheap then). I don't know if Hodge shared the same bad habit as his owner and Tablet.