An X account named after James Tiberius Kirk posted this picture and the caption "The holidays bring people of all quadrants together."

 

For those who have not read "Thrawn: "Alliances" by Timothy Zahn, Star Wars, Thrawn: Alliances by Timothy Zahn, book page at Amazon.co.uk Batuu is a planet in the Outer Rim of the galaxy far, far away. It is where Senior Captain * Mitth'raw'nuruodo (the future Grand Admiral Thrawn) first met Jedi General Anakin Skywalker and teamed up with him to rescue Senator Padme Amidala and foil a separatist plot.   There are WAY too many Star Wars, Star Trek and other science fiction or fantasy parodies of "All I want for Christmas" for me to use all of them, so I'm just going to post a few of the best. "All I want for Christmas is Batuu" is probably the best of the Star Wars parodies of this song, based on the quality of the musical performance and originality of the humour.  * Footnote.  This footnote is only for real Star Wars detail nerds and any pedants who wondered why I gave Thrawn's rank as Senior Captain above. Yes, I described Thraw...

An intriguing little piece of  20th century history about a remarkable man. The Jewish shopkeeper in this picture from Germany in 1933 is called Richard Stern - and he's wearing an Iron Cross awarded for serving in the German Army in World War One, while a Nazi thug stands guard outside his shop as part of a boycott of Jewish businesses. . You can see from the wry smile of Richard Stern's face that the man had incredible guts. It's the brown shirt, not the shopkeeper, whose demeanour radiates fear and tension. This post is taken from a tweet by  Archaeo - Histories on X here  which reprinted an article in the Jewish Observer. After being awarded the prestigious Iron Cross for his service in the German army during World War I, Richard Stern was driven out of his home country by the Nazi regime. MyHeritage’s Research team discovered records of him arriving at Ellis Island at the age of 40 in May 1939 — narrowly escaping the beginning of the war.  In 1942, when Stern wa...

  From "For the Fallen " by Robert Laurence Binyon. Image posted by the British Royal Family in their Remembrance Sunday message.

  "If one is remembered by a Friend, one is never truly gone." (Grand Admiral Thrawn: the passage below from which this quote is taken forms the first words of the  the Epilogue of Timothy Zahn's novel "Thrawn." In context these words are clearly about exile, not death. Thrawn himself had been exiled from the Chiss Ascendancy to the Empire: he had written these words in a journal he gave to his friend Eli Vanto who was going into exile in the opposite direction, from the Empire to the Chiss Ascendancy. However, I find the comment to be equally relevant to All Soul's Day. For what is death if it is not an exile from the world of the living?)