The second movie in the third Star Wars trilogy is in theaters now, and the reactions from fans is split between those who love The Last Jedi and those who hate it. The middle movie of a trilogy is a unique position, in that it is free of the exposition of the first film, must provide a bridge to the third installment, and will inevitably be compared critically to the first film no matter what. The comparisons are even more brutal for episode XIII with seven movies coming before. But The Last Jedi has been compared most often to The Empire Strikes Back, which is episode five, the second Star Wars film produced, and the middle of the original trilogy. Now considered by many to be the best movie of the series, when Empire hit theaters in 1980 some fans were not at all happy with it. Starlog magazine printed fan reactions when The Empire Strikes Back was new. As ever, they were quite nitpicky, and are funny in retrospect.

Robert L. Beedy-Scarola:

Is Luke related to Vader? Most think so now that Vader came right out and said it. Well, I say, do you believe everything you hear? Vader may have lied just to enlist Luke to his side. Vader would then dispose of Luke once he got what he wanted.

Jeannette Vogelpohl:

Somebody should tell Harrison Ford that when a woman tells a man, “I love you,” “I know” is not an acceptable response. That scene was not funny, it was infuriating.

Of course, some fans loved the movie. Starlog itself offered a criticism of The Empire Strikes Back. Read more of the fan reactions to Empire and a comparison with what is being said about The Last Jedi (with spoilers) at A Critical Hit.

You might think this is a little morbid, but stick with it. It gets even sadder.

Grandma and her sweet charm foil death again in the end. What's sad is that Jake isn't there with her as he should be. If there's someone in your family who isn't surrounded by loved ones for the holidays, you could at least call them. This Christmas reminder is from Charlie Higson at Heck If I Know Comics. -via Geeks Are Sexy

In the American Midwest, some families follow the old tradition of hanging a Christmas pickle (Weihnachtsgurke) from the tree, hidden deep in the branches. It's often an heirloom glass ornament. On Christmas morning, the first child who finds the pickle gets an extra gift, or is allowed to open the first present, or receives other honor. The Christmas pickle is a tradition their ancestors brought from Germany. Or is it? Germans are often surprised to hear the story.

It seems that Germans don’t do the pickle thing at all. Cole says the pickle is hard to find in places where one would expect it to be ubiquitous (such as the Berlin Christmas market). Within Germany, it’s so puzzling that German newspapers have published articles explaining this tradition that’s supposedly theirs. In fact, a 2016 survey found that 91 percent of Germans had never heard of the Christmas pickle, and only two percent celebrated it. So if it didn’t come from Germany, where did it come from?

There are several plausible explanations for the tradition of the Christmas pickle you can read at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Christbaumschmuck der Firma Inge-Glas)

Alma T. C. Boykin has a blog called Cat Rotator's Quarterly. The blog is not about rotating cats, or even about cats in general. The name makes sense when you know the secret.

Rotating one’s cat is a writer euphemism for pure procrastination.

Gotcha. However, a recent post addressed the need to rotate one's cat occasionally. When a cat stays in one position long enough, he may become flat on one side.

The ideal is a well-rounded cat, with symmetrical spherosity.

Further research may be needed to reconcile this observation with the fact that cats are liquid. Have you rotated your cat today? See plenty of visual aids at Cat Rotator's Quarterly. Now, excuse me, I have to go rotate my cats. -via Strange Company

Captain Herman Schuenemann had a three-masted schooner named the Rouse Simmons, but people called him Captain Santa and they called his ship the Christmas Tree Ship. Every year, he would bring in a boatload of Christmas tree from Upper Michigan to Chicago and sell them at the dock. The decorated ship would light up the Clark Street dock and buying a Christmas tree there became a tradition among city residents. Until 1912.

Schuenemann moved hordes of the Michigan spruces annually from his dockside location and earned a reputation for generosity by donating trees to the poor. But in 1912, his own wallet may have been tightening. He had filed for bankruptcy a few years earlier and, likely operating under tight margins, he nixed having the 44-year-old Simmons re-caulked for the trip down Lake Michigan that year.

The boat’s seaworthiness didn’t appear to be of much concern to Schuenemann, nor did the bad omen of rats fleeing the ship faze him. Captain Santa would make his annual run to Chi-Town anyway, just in time for the holidays. The city, and presumably his bank account, were depending on it.

Schuenemann and his trees never made it to the Clark Street dock that year, or ever again. Read about the final voyage of the Christmas Tree Ship at Mental Floss.
 
(Image credit: Chicago Maritime Museum)

(Image credit: Adam Kofird at the NeatoShop)

Every year, Neatorama posts almost 6,000 items for your edification and entertainment. Those include feature articles, Neatorama exclusives, videos, links, neat pictures, and webcomics. Some posts do well, some not so well, and a few rise above the others and go viral. Here are Neatorama's top ten posts for 2017. Click the numbered titles to go to the original posts.  

You'd probably have trouble finding all the ingredients for Nightmare Before Christmas Wreath Candy at this late date, but the picture was too delicious not to share. File this recipe away for next Christmas. Hellen Die (Tye Lombardi, previously at Neatorama) made these in homage to her favorite Christmas film, The Nightmare Before Christmas. You could call these scary treats cookies, because the wreaths are based on corn flakes, but since they aren't baked, I'll call them candy. The teeth are the most important part, so you'll get a tutorial on making modeling chocolate, which can be made into all kinds of edible sculptures. All the instructions are at the Nom-Nom-Nom-Nomicon.

Use your electric wangjangler to mix the road tar. Don't forget to despatulize the sides. Get your cylindrical compression tube ready, it's time to make gingerbread men! They don't have to be men; you can make your gingerbread cookies in any shape you want, like a pineapple or a hammer or slenderman. He left the tea out of his hot toddy, but never mind, since the main ingredient is whiskey.

(YouTube link)

But just when you thought you were going to watch him decorate the cookies, this video takes a sharp left turn into a Christmas wrapping lesson and a heart touching holiday story about a robot, as our narrator is quite distractible. Even if you prefer to get your gingerbread from the cookie aisle, you'll enjoy this video from You Suck at Cooking. -via Tastefully Offensive

You might look at the conclusion of a research study in the title here as just too obvious, but it's not as simple as cuddling up because it's cold. We know that birth rates peak in September, but is that because it's cold in the winter, or because people get frisky during the Christmas holidays? It turns out that when you study the phenomenon globally, the holiday has more to do with it than the climate. Birth rates peak in September in the Southern Hemisphere, too, but only in countries in which the majority of people observe Christmas.

The analysis revealed that interest in sex peaks significantly during major cultural or religious celebrations—based upon a greater use of the word "sex" or other sexual terms in web searches. These peaks broadly corresponded to an increase in births nine months later in countries with available birth-rate data.

Moreover, the effect was observed in two different cultures, with the greatest spike occurring during major holiday celebrations: Christmas in Christian-majority countries and Eid-al-Fitr, the celebration that marks the end of Ramadan, in Muslim-majority countries.

The use of data from the Northern and Southern hemispheres is notable since past analyses tended to focus on smaller geographic areas in the Western and Northern hemispheres. The case of Eid-al-Fitr is significant because the holiday does not occur on the same day each year, but the measured effect still shifts accordingly, following a clear cultural pattern.

In fact, you can detect the dominant religion of a country by looking at the peak birth month, as in the above map. Thanksgiving and Easter did not significantly affect the birth rate. Read more about the study at PhysOrg. -via Digg

(Image credit: Ian Wood, Indiana University)

Ah, the comforts of home. Visiting your parents at Christmas has its rewards, in particular the familiarity and constancy of it all. Of course, one constant is that they will ask you to "repair" the computer, meaning dumping the trash, cleaning up the crowded desktop, and installing system updates. That will make you a hero in their eyes. I do all those things for my mother, but when my kids come home, I ask them to add and delete contacts on my phone. Everyone has their limits. This comic is from CommitStrip. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Who knew that Luke Skywalker liked to sing while he piloted his X-wing into battle? Bad Lip Reading took the back-and-forth between fighters and made it into a song called "Hostiles on the Hill."  

(YouTube link)

While earlier bad lip readings put nonsense into the actors' lines, the more recent videos have incorporated complete sentences that hang together loosely, and even tunes. Even if you aren't impressed with the song, you have to admire the deft editing that makes it seem like those exact words are coming from the mouth movements seen in a decades-old movie. And even if you aren't impressed with any of that, this is an excuse to watch Luke and company defeat the AT-AT walkers in the Battle of Hoth again.

The online game Push is as simple as its instructions ...NOT. The entirety of the instructions are "Push all the buttons." At first it's pretty simple. Then its doable. Then it gets complicated. How can pushing buttons get complicated? When the act of pushing one button un-pushes another button! But you'll have fun trying to figure it out. The best part of the game Push is that it's not timed, so you can slow down and think about it. And it can be a respite from all the family togetherness you'll be experiencing this weekend. Try out Push here. -Thanks, Edward!  

What would you do if this guy stared at you from across the room as he was eating an ice cream? He knows how to say a lot with just his eyes. No, you'll have to watch to see what happens. Meanwhile, does anyone have a fan handy?  

(YouTube link)

The flirt is actor Moreno Nunes, appearing on the Brazilian TV show Câmera Escondida, which translates to Hidden Camera. They also did a version of this with the sexes reversed, but it leaves you with a different feeling. I was expecting the guys to get  up and approach the woman any minute.  -via reddit

Photographer Jesse Rieser spent seven years shooting scenes of how we decorate for Christmas, the season of excess. The series is called Christmas in America. Buzzfeed talked to Rieser about the project.

I think the project started in a more cynical tone and quickly changed once I learned the level of sincerity — and almost childlike enthusiasm and love — people have for the holiday. It quickly went from a question of, “is it keeping up with the Joneses” to something very endearing, no matter how quirky it may come across.

I think there are landmarks in any project that can help identify or solidify a project's identity and message. For this body of work, the “Protecting Dream” image was the first captured for the project: The humorous yet unsettling juxtaposition of Santa Claus and armed US military helped set the tone and establish the themes of Christmas in America.

See a selection of images from Christmas in America at Buzzfeed. Don't miss Santa Claus flying in to a church service, the Elvis shrine, and the "Bavarian Christmas Village Garage."

(Image credit: Jesse Rieser)

Even the simple act of giving a gift can be selfish. Third Leg Studios presents a scenario in which every gift comes with a selfish intent from the giver. You think that there must be an end to the ways this can be done, but they go on and on, until everyone in the family implies their true intent.  

(YouTube link)

This poor guy. He probably just wanted some candy for Christmas. And he probably put a lot of thought into the gifts he bought for everyone else. We aren't quite sure he's really related to the rest of them. Five days later, College Humor visited the same idea, except this time it's an office party, and only one guy bought all the gifts.

(YouTube link)

In this case, it's just Raphael who's figured out the way to manipulate Christmas to buy himself stuff and make himself look generous at the same time. Or so he thought. The recipients eventually call him out on it.