Those of you in the New York/New Jersey area, this is the last weekend to catch the latest stage productions of Northanger Abbey and Pride and Prejudice. The Editrix saw Northanger Abbey last weekend and enjoyed it thoroughly. The entire play is a delight from beginning to end. Our face hurt from smiling when it was over! Alert Janeite Heather L. sent us another review of NA (which she will be seeing tonight).

OffOffOnline:

Stetkevych is so delightful as Catherine’s love interest Tilney that he left me wishing Austen had made the character more prominent in the novel.

We protest!!! How much more prominent can a man BE than booted and great coated, and with innumerable capes on his great coat, and driving so well? We ask you! (Mr. Stetkevych is rather nice, though. tee-hee!)

The Editrix and a group of JASNA members will be seeing P&P tomorrow and are very much looking forward to it! As Miss Bates might say, so much Jane, we do not know where to look first!

Now, THIS is totally cool.

A researcher at the University of Bradford in the UK has developed a computer program with an algorithm that can map the human genome. His testing method is of interest to Janeites.

Professor Shepherd originally tested his computer programme on the entire text of Emma by Jane Austen after removing all the spaces and punctuation, leaving just a long impenetrable line of letters. Despite having no knowledge of the English vocabulary or syntax, the programme managed to identify 80 per cent of the words and separate them back into sentences.

Wouldn’t Jane be proud? Imagine if this algorithm and the work done with it leads to a cure for Addison’s disease (among other things).

(Have we mentioned that we have Issues with Edmund Bertram? Lately?)

Alert Janeites Sylvia M. and Chantel let us know that there are two new photos from MANSFIELD PARK 2007 on the Company Pictures site, though still no real cast information. Blake Ritson is on the right, looking all Regency and stuff. On the left is Billie Piper, of course, (or even Billi Pipper!) and in the background a rather tousled, Byronic-looking Mystery Gentleman. We don’t know who he is; he’s not anyone on the cast list that we’ve managed to pick up in crumbs and bits because JANE FORBID ANYONE SHOULD MAKE A FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT ALREADY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. *ahem* Sylvia is of the opinion that he is Henry Crawford, and Chantel opined that she HOPES he’s Tom Bertram because Henry Crawford “should have a nicer hairstyle than THAT.”

We do think the tousled Byronic etc. etc. gent is playing Henry and Blake is playing The Lord High Mayor of Wankerville Edmund, but Jane knows we’ve been wrong before.

ETA: Alert Janeite Cinthia found an interview with Blake Ritson where he says he is playing Edmund. (And now we know why Googling “Blake Ritson Edmund Bertram” didn’t turn up anything. How silly of us to spell it correctly.) But who is Lord Byron back there, hmmm? Angie suggests in comments that he looks like Joe Beattie. Well, HELLO, Mr. Crawford. Can we get you anything? Coffee? Tea? A gentle tap with the Cluebat of Janeite Righteousness? (Another photo, and another, and one more…the resemblance is there, certainly.) The mystery continues…

Alert Janeite Marcy found a video on YouTube taken by a bystander of the filming of PERSUASION 2007 in Bath. Looks like the photographer is a Rupert Penry-Jones fan, eh?

Alert Janeite Zoe sent us a link to a very amusing McSweeney’s List titled “Taboos Never Mentioned at Meetings of the Jane Austen Society.”

Gee, he must have been hanging out at the Tucson AGM!

Alert Janeite Paola wrote to tell us about a book called Kafka’s Soup: A Complete History of World Literature in 14 Recipes, which contains recipes inspired by literature–including tarragon eggs written in Jane Austen style.