The Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader has an article about a local couple who has their own private book club. The wife is definitely a Friend of Jane:

When JoAnn rhapsodizes about her lifelong fascination with the work of Jane Austen, Austen sounds as if she’s not only alive but living in a farmhouse just down the road — a wicked, gossipy neighbor with a caustic sense of humor, not a dusty relic from a college reading list.

That’s no surprise to any Janeite worth her Chapman editions.

Alert AustenBlog Reader Laura sent us a link to The Movie Insider that lists a film version of THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB to be released in 2005. The last we had heard, it was only optioned for film. This sounds more definite, but it’s not quite definitive, either. (Private from the Editrix to the Producers: Adrien Brody as Grigg. Think about it.)

Thanks for the link, Laura!

The Independent (U.K.) has an article about “signage,” slang hand signals used by young persons, attributing it to the film CLUELESS:

There are two schools of thought as to where the phenomenon originated. “Kids say they first spotted it in Clueless,” says Kathleen Pingol, a UCLA humanities student, who’s studied what she calls “the signage thing”. The 1995 movie, which rewrote Jane Austen’s Emma as a story of Valley Girl apotheosis, offered the first sightings of the three cornerstones - the canon, if you will - of modern signage.

The Editrix remembers making the International Sign of the Loser in her university days, back when Cher Horowitz was driving Barbie’s Dream Jeep into Josh’s GI Joe trucks, so we are taking this with a grain of salt.

USA Today (via Yahoo) has some suggestions for low-tech holiday gifts, including some of interest to Janeites.

We are astonished we had not previously thought to link to Paperdolls.com. The Jane Austen paper doll is delightful, as are the dolls portraying Jane’s heroines and heroes. The dolls are suitable for framing and a portion of the profits from every sale is donated to charity. If you’ve ever wanted an opportunity to dress Mr. Darcy (yes, we know, you’d rather undress him, you guttersnipes), here’s your opportunity.

The article also links to Dover Publications and suggests gifting your loved ones with inexpensive versions of the classics. Jane’s novels are all priced around $2.50 US, which you can’t beat with a stick in our frugal opinion. Stuff a young person’s stocking to introduce them to Jane, or pick up extra carry-around, write-in or beach-reading copies for yourself!

Dover also offers Pride and Prejudice paper dolls–different from those above, and we think not as attractive, but they seem to have more of the characters than just Lizzy and Darcy, if you’re looking for a complete set from the novel.