Ultimate Geek Fu

I'm sure everyone has noticed that a major holiday is approaching; one associated with the giving of gifts. I'm sure we've all gotten our share of odd and inappropriate gifts over the years. Those range from clothes given to you when you were a little kid and only interested in receiving toys to, um, clothes given to you when you were ostensibly an adult and still only interested in receiving toys. This column is about "geek fu," though, so I have another kind of gift in mind.

What is the geekiest gift you've ever received?

I don't even have to think all that hard to come up with my geekiest gift. It was 1997, back in the halcyon days before the Star Wars prequels had been released. Back in the days when our only complaint was that George Lucas had screwed up the scene between Han and Greedo in the Mos Eisley Cantina. Yes, we all screamed "Han shot first!" but at least Jar Jar Binks was still in the future. The upshot of all of this is that Star Wars merchandise was more plentiful than it had ever been before and a lot of it was aimed at adults.

That brings me around to my geekiest gift ever. On Christmas morning, a beautifully wrapped box was handed to me. Just holding the box, it felt like clothes. There was just something about the weight and the type of box that gave it away. Now, I have reached the point where I don't really mind getting clothes for Christmas (being responsible for buying your own clothes will do that to you), but unless I'm getting a geeky t-shirt, clothing still doesn't make my heart leap with joy. So, with a carefully pasted on look of anticipation, I opened the box. I was right, it was clothing. A jacket, to be exact; something I most definitely did need. But it wasn't just any jacket.

It was an authentic, exact replica of the jacket worn by Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back. I've always liked that jacket, so it was cool beyond belief to me. It was equally fun to wear it to work after the holidays and note who recognized it (three other geeks).

The jacket no longer fits, but I still have it. To this day, it is my geekiest gift ever. Can you top that?

Let the arguments begin!