We previously posted a tantalizing tidbit about a possible new S&S adaptation, and Alert Janeite Arwen came up with the goods: it will be a modern-set Spanish language (we assume) adaptation called SENSIBILIDAD.

Currently, (playwright Luis Alfaro) is collaborating with director Fina Torres on Sensibilidad, a contemporary adaptation of Sense and Sensibility set in Los Angeles.

Coolness! And kudos to Arwen for tracking down the info.

Alert Janeite Laurie found some more information about Lost in Austen: A Make Your Own Jane Austen Adventure, about which we posted not long ago.

Webster’s adventure novel is a literary game that will give readers the opportunity to play at being Elizabeth Bennet, navigating their way through important and difficult decisions about love and marriage upon which the plot(s) hinges; the book will incorporate characters and landscapes from all of Austen’s novels. Webster is an actress by day; she specialized in Austen while reading English at Oxford. Riverhead will publish in early 2008.

Sounds like fun!

(It has been whispered to us that an Individual in one of the many online discussion groups related to Jane Austen’s work has expressed concern that the Editrix has an “unhealthy obsession with Henry Tilney.” While we appreciate the concern, we must respond, invoking the common wisdom of another of our fandoms, “You say that like it’s a bad thing.” But we digress from the subject at hand.)

The Telegraph has an article about historical Assembly Rooms that are still in use today as local arts centres. As there is a law of physics that states that any article mentioning “Bath” and “Assembly Rooms” must also include “Jane Austen” or the Internets implode, naturally her name pops up.

Jane Austen loved an assembly room ball. When her family moved to Bath, she became part of a lively social whirl that revolved around concerts and weekly dances at the town’s assemblies, a scene reflected in her books.

And it’s actually all true and completely unobjectionable! Bravo!

“We started a campaign to raise half a million pounds to restore the Assembly Rooms,” said Lloyd. The restoration was completed in 1993. “Our goal was to recreate the Rooms as a thriving independent venue offering arts and education-based activities similar to the original concept. The only difference between then and now is that the dances and card parties are gone.”

Jane Austen would no doubt have been sad about the dances, but would surely have been pleased that assembly rooms, in Ludlow and around the country, are thriving once more.

No doubt she would have been sad about the dances. We thought this was kind of a sweet article, and there’s even a little pic of the Upper Rooms, which makes us warm and fuzzy. Bath is indeed the Happiest Place On Earth™!

Jane Austen continues to haunt the collective conscious in newspaper articles.

Alert Janeite Kay wrote to tell us that the Minneapolis Star Tribune Sunday had an article about reasons for an increase in crime that was titled “Senselessness and Sensibility” (the article is available online but does not have the same headline). We are not quite sure what to make of that! It’s interesting how the headline writer’s mind went to Jane (probably thought “senseless” and the rest followed) but why he or she thought to go through with a comparison invoking Jane Austen in a crime article is just really odd.

Alert Janeite Joanne sent us a link to an article on the Beeb about cell phones and civility that also had an Austen allusion.

The flexibility of having so many ways of contacting people is creating a slew of text messages and mobile calls only leading to further text messages and mobile calls and an eventual “I’ll text you on the day”. The golden age of asking to meet people occurred in the novels of Jane Austen.

Notes on cards in copperplate handwriting in scented envelopes delivered by discreet footmen are how it should be. Not vague indications of a meeting with no particular time discussed.

As Joanne pointed out, “Really? I got the impression from Austen that people turned up at other’s houses whenever they felt like it with no prior warning needed. When Darcy asks if he can bring Georgiana round to meet Elizabeth he doesn’t specify a date or time and came much earlier than expected.” We couldn’t have snarked it better.

USAToday has an article about Eden Collinsworth’s new book that contains the following:

Collinsworth shows her literary expertise in her book. She gives the husband, James, the surname Willoughby, the same as Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility fortune hunter.

How does that show “literary expertise,” pray? It shows she’s read Jane Austen. Big whoop.

A review of Academy X in the Philadelphia Inquirer quotes another Austen allusion:

It also seems unlikely that the very smartest and the very dumbest seniors would be in a class together, since the school does use tracking. And even the most moronic 18-year-olds wouldn’t, in all seriousness, say something like, “Handsome? That’s a word for a guy. Maybe Emma’s a guy.”

Oh, honey, you have no idea how very stupid people can be about Jane Austen.