A "Clueless" handbook for the uninitiated: From left, Kalia Cheng, "As if," Carly Ryan, "Whatever," Kacy Church, "Loser," Nathalie Sakimura, "Mental" or "Monet," and Emma Hansen, "Double-loser."

Nowadays, however, at least among the Valley Girl set, being clueless is, like, so cool.

Like, as 11-year-old Kacy Church said, "You're clueless, but not totally dumb. Just clueless."

You don't get it? Well then, "what-evv-er" (said in an exasperated tone)!

Ever since the movie, "Clueless," came out last year, the talk, mannerisms and Attitude - with a capital A - of the characters played by Alicia Silverstone and company have invaded school yard chatter.

Prominent in all this is the sign language to accompany the mostly one-word putdowns.

To demonstrate and translate for us, we got a giggle of girls who attended Carly Ryan's 11th birthday party this summer where the theme was, "Clueless;" where kneesocks were de rigeur; and where Valley Speak was in the air.

The translators:

Among the major signs to recognize:

• "Whatever" - The letter "W." "Like sure, I don't think so;" meant to be sarcastic.
• "Loser" - The letter "L" "You're weird" or "You're like a geek."
• "As If" - A box-like "A" "Almost exactly like 'whatever.' Like, 'no way; I don't think so.'"
• L7 Weenie - A square (A tribute to a past generation, where an L7 meant you were square. Can you dig it, man?) "Dumb, stupid."
• Mental - The letter "M" See L7 above.
• Monet - Also the letter "M" "Like, something is nice from far off but is really ugly up close." (Hey, at least they know something about impressionism!)
• Double Loser - Two Ls. 'Nuff said.

All of this requires, ya know, the right attitude to carry off.

As Carly espoused, "The second main thing is attitude. The first is clothes."

That immediately prompted her friends to accuse her of stealing the line straight from the book, "Clueless," an 81-page totally frivolous paperback meant to be "Cher's Guide to ... Whatever."

She didn't deny it, the book being the Bible for the babble, as in defining attitude: "Attitude is the way you carry yourself, the vibe that you give off, your, like, essence or flavor. To successfully make your presence known in high school, you must have attitude."

So, like, what's the point?

"It's just fun because it's being different," Nathalie explained.

"We do it just to annoy people," Carly added. That makes sense since parents and teachers "don't like us to do it."

Julie Hansen, of Aina Haina, says her daughter, Emma, will respond with " 'Whatever' whenever I tell her something she doesn't want to do."

From her perspective, "it's a movement" but just part of growing up.

"You always find some way of dealing with your parents," Hansen said. "When I was her age, I would hiss."

One more thing, we asked the girls. Do boys, talk this way, too?

No way!

According to the girls, boys "have this other image, like putting their hats on backward, and wearing big T-shirts and baggy, baggy pants."

Boys are like, clueless, ya know. But they have their own attitude.