Maybe it’s just me, but when I clicked this link, which came to me via my “Jane Austen” Google alert, I laughed out loud:
See, I read the headline as “Jane Austen college boys,” which immediately brought to mind images of Regency-themed keggers, or twenty-something guys wearing embroidered waistcoats with their saggy jeans and backwards-facing baseball caps.
On further inspection, I realized that what’s being marketed here are boys’ sports uniforms for the new Jane Austen College in Norwich, England, a secondary school named after Our Jane.
Naturally, I believe that it’s about time such a thing existed – in fact, why don’t we have an American version? (“Because she was British?” the hecklers suggest. Oh. Right.) I love the idea of sports fans standing on the sidelines yelling, "Go, Janeites! Get that ball in goal!" And I’m rather charmed that the school’s logo seems to be a quill pen.
In fact, I’m so charmed that I’m seriously thinking of buying myself the Jane Austen College sweatshirt, in black with fetching red accents. I’ll wear it to the next Regency-themed kegger.