“This is the best tradition I ever stole.” I wish I could take credit for the creation and naming of this holiday – but it was my favorite mermaid, Daphodelia, that first mentioned the tradition to me when we were girl detectives back in 2013.

Even then, Pi Day was old news – for anyone outside the States, here we notate the date in a ‘month-day-year’ format, so today, the 14th day of March is 3.14, or, the first three digits of that enigmatic mathematical celebrity that is π or the artist formerly known as Pi. The holiday’s go-to celebrations were always a bit cliche: make/eat pies? YAWN. Every super-evil-mega-corporation hosts those year after year. Could you think of a less-inspired observance? No, no, no, the ‘magical mathematical mystery of life number’ holiday  deserved something special, something uniquely its own.

So when Daphodelia first mentioned her houses tradition of marathoning Pride and Prejudice while eating ALL THE PIE* (*term applied loosely so pizza counts, cheesecake counts, quiche counts), I knew I had to appropriate that, if I couldn’t secure my own invite to that year’s festivities. When I was told the party was a “roomies only” event, I started planting seeds with Char-Char (I may be a cunning super villain, but I am a benevolent cunning super villain).

In fact, in the 4 years we’ve binged on Jane Austin and all things pie together, this post is probably her first hint that our annual manner of observance is not our own original creation. You see, CharChar and I are Austinphiles. I’ve loved Jane Austin since my first reading, at age 9, of Emma‘s opening line “nothing to distress or vex her.” What a turn of phrase, I was smitten with words for life. And Char-Char is an even bigger fan than I am. I’m pretty sure she has memorized every sentence of every book, not exaggerating. We both get lost in the sassy retorts of our female protagonists who operated both within and around a system that treated women as property, as Jane herself did.

Point of fact: This, being 3.14.15 is in fact a sort of ultimate Pi day, as the last two digits of the year advance Pi corectly. So I am wishing each of you today are all reveling in the proto-feminist storytelling of Jane Austin, indulging in whatever sweet or savory pie-esque treats beckon, and will find nothing to distress or vex you until we all find our own Mr Darcy’s and Miss Bennett’s. Accept no substitutions.