A dentist in Minnesota uses video goggles playing Jane Austen adaptations to distract herself while getting her own teeth worked on.

We understand that a certain Wet Shirt is well-known to induce a euphoric state, similar to strong narcotics, in some patients.

Richard Norton Smith, writing for the Weekly Standard on presidential reading habits, reveals that President James Garfield was a Friend of Jane.

Garfield particularly enjoyed the novels of Jane Austen, which he pronounced superior in every way to current fiction. “The novel of today,” he declared with a censoriousness alien to Charlotte Simmons, “is highly spiced with sensation, and I suspect it results from the general tendency to fast living, increased nervousness, and the general spirit of rush that seems to pervade life and thought in our times.”

Garfield was shot July 2, 1881, only four months into his term. With physicians unable to find and remove the bullet, he lingered until September 19, finally dying from infection and internal bleeding. One hopes his favorite novels were read to him during those difficult months.

Scotland on Sunday has an article on Becoming Jane/Jane Austen, complete with a now somewhat predictable lede:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Hollywood studio in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a script.

The article speculates on the identity of the actress who will portray Jane Austen. Apparently, the author doesn’t read Variety, as there is nary a mention of Natalie Portman.

Scottish production company Ecosse Films and Columbia Pictures are due to start casting this month for a major Hollywood picture based on the author’s early life. Titled Becoming Jane Austen the movie will be scripted by Kevin Hood, who adapted Tony Parsons’ book Man and Boy for television. It will tell the story of Austen’s life around the age of 20, when she fell in love with a young Irish lawyer who inspired her to become a novelist.

Douglas Rae, the chief executive of Ecosse Films, said the company had just started discussions with a number of actresses to play the role.

Rae said: “The story is of Jane Austen falling in love and it is a story that has never really been told. This is the story of how Jane Austen, who never married, had a love affair when she was 21 with a young Irishman, who is credited with persuading her to take up writing as a vocation rather than a schoolgirl fantasy.

“At this stage we cannot reveal who will play Jane but we are hoping to get a major international star.”