Here are just SOME examples of similar-looking grids to Sunday’s alleged ‘swastika’ in the NYT. Again: the allegation that Sunday’s puzzle was anything other than an excellent Sunday crossword with NORMAL rotational symmetry is…an absurd conspiracy.
#crosswordtwitter: can someone please help find similar-looking ‘whirlpool’ grids to Sunday’s? I think it’ll be helpful for ppl to see that this grid is not highly unusual, and similar shapes appear in the NYT and elsewhere.
@BobbyBowwers@jordanliles@snopes This is a technicality—but I am arguing it because the Snopes opinion that this is TRUE ignores the context and implications in favor of technicality.
Some ppl (especially on the right) are saying that Sunday’s #nytxw looked like a swastika, thus implying that the NYT is anti-Semitic. THIS IS A CONSPIRACY THEORY. I’m Jewish and understand the sensitivity, but the grid was simply a function of traditional symmetry constraints.
@BobbyBowwers@jordanliles@snopes Correct! It wasn’t the first day of Hanukkah: it was the first night. The NYT puzzle was for Sunday, which was not a Jewish holiday.
.@jordanliles I strongly recommend reconsidering your assessment on @snopes and would be happy to discuss. In addition to it not actually being a swastika, it is also FALSE that it was the first day of Hanukkah.
@keithedwards@nytimes So it’s actually hard to get a grid to NOT look like a swastika because of traditional symmetry constraints. As a Jewish crossword commentator, it‘s unfortunate, but I sympathize with the conundrum and am confident that no harm was intended.
@gossipbabies Just want to point out that it’s actually hard to get a grid NOT to look like a swastika—due to traditional symmetry constraints!
Also, technically it wasn’t Hanukkah yet.
@finitealright @not_a_crossword I feel like my aura is already real crosswords so I left it for the a member of the public who hasn’t yet reached transcendence