The New York Times published a crossword puzzle on Sunday, the first day of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, that many readers thought was shaped like a Nazi Swastika. 

No one involved with the puzzle seemed to notice. In a Times column about the Sunday crossword, Caitlin Lovinger wrote, "I love the geometry in this puzzle — so many stair steps! — and feel that it contributes to a certain evenness in the solve." Ryan McCarty, the puzzle’s constructor, described the design as a "fun whirlpool shape."

But The Times was criticized heavily on Twitter by people across the political spectrum for what they thought what was clear to see.

"[W]hy is The New York Times' crossword a swastika?" Daily Wire senior writer Ryan Saavedra asked in a tweet.

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Keith Edwards, a Democratic strategist and Lincoln Project alum, tweeted, "This is the NYTimes crossword puzzle today on the first day of Hanukkah. What the hell, @nytimes?"

"I personally believe swastikas shouldn’t appear in the New York Times, intentionally or otherwise. Didn’t think that would be a controversial take," he continued.

"I know that the @nytimes crossword wasn’t intentionally laid out as a swastika so I guess the sin here is bad editing. How did this get approved without somebody noticing?" Sam Sokol, a reporter at Haaretz.com, tweeted.

"Today’s New York Times crossword is um…making me nervous," Jewish Journal columnist Blake Flayton tweeted.

Sara Luterman, a reporter with the left-wing 19th News, asked, "Is it just me or does the @nytimes crossword look kind of swastika-y today?"

"It’s the first night of Hanukkah, so the NYT gives us a swastika crossword puzzle…," Aaron Lavinsky, a photojournalist with the Star Tribune, tweeted. 

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"Intentional swastika or not, the fact that the @nytimes @NYTGames would have a staff so insensitive to not catch it, is worthy of discussion & action. This is not getting the attention it deserves. #NeverAgain," said former Obama and Biden fundraiser Eric Ortner.

Kalman Yeger, a Democratic City Councilman who represents Borough Park, a predominantly Jewish area in Brooklyn, tweeted, "A hidden Happy Chanukah message in today's @nytimes crossword?"

Brian Robinson, a former New York Congressional candidate, tweeted ,"I know the @nytimes is not, how do I say it, the friendliness paper to Jewish folk (outside of the nutty far left self haters), but this subliminal crossword puzzle is NEXT LEVEL."

On the same weekend the Times published the disturbing crossword puzzle, its editorial board published a piece slamming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an extremist and warning that Israeli democracy is at risk. They described the incoming leader's return to power as "a significant threat to the future of Israel — its direction, its security and even the idea of a Jewish homeland."

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The temperature in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, recently dropped to 25 degrees and Ukrainians are freezing as Russian airstrikes are pounding the country’s vital infrastructure, cutting off electricity and heat and depriving them of drinking water.

But "General Frost," on which the Russians have relied for centuries to help defeat the country’s enemies, has also turned its weapon against President Vladimir Putin’s soldiers. The Russian forces, who have been fighting, on Putin’s orders, against their Slavic brethren for 10 months, are reportedly dying from hypothermia because their uniform no longer holds up to severe Eurasian winters.

The fiasco stems from several odd decisions made by the post-Soviet military leadership and by Putin himself.

The Soviet Red Army uniform was a poor man’s version of the Imperial Russian Army dress from the 19th century. In the run-up to World War II, when Russia had the largest army in Europe, approximately 2 million soldiers, Moscow prioritized low-cost but effective couture, compared to the pompous, flashy designs favored by the czarist generals. The uniform was practical, with no frills other than a bright distinctive insignia worn by senior officers that made them easy targets for German marksmen.

The winter wear included a greatcoat or half-length fur coat, a cap with ear flaps and thick felt wool valenki footwear worn by the Russian military and civilians alike for hundreds of years. Designed for extreme Russian winters, the uniforms helped the Russians forces beat the French in 1812 and the Germans in 1941-1945. Napoleon Bonaparte admitted that the Russian winter was largely responsible for the disintegration of his army. Many of Hitler’s lightly clad Nazi troops also froze to death.

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After the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, eager to shed their communist heritage, various post-Soviet defense ministers introduced changes to the Russian uniform. Army General Pavel Grachev, who was Boris Yeltsin’s defense minister, instituted changes that made the Russian uniform resemble NATO’s. 

An exception was the officer field cap that proudly sported a new Russian national symbol, the double-headed eagle, which the soldiers dubbed "mutated chicken." Igor Sergeyev, who rose to defense minister in 1997 under Yeltsin but was fired by Putin in 2001, made Russian military dress look like that of the U.S. Army. And Anatoliy Serdyukov, who was also fired by Putin, ordered winter uniforms to be slim and tailored.

But the biggest uproar in the ranks erupted after the radical changes made by a famous fashion designer Valentin Yudashkin. Known for his theatrical styles, Yudashkin’s evening gowns are displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the California Museum of Fashion in Los Angeles and the Museum of Fashion and Textile in Paris.

He dressed Raisa, the wife of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, and his work appeared in Elle and Vogue. Russian soldiers, however, did not appreciate the talents of the first post-Soviet couturier who claimed to have visited the factories that produce uniforms for the French, Italian and Israeli militaries to gain expertise. 

Service members complained that the uniform was made of cheap synthetic material, making them too hot in summer. Its pockets were too small and didn’t fit a mobile phone or identification papers and other documents. Velcro patches fell off, buttons disappeared within two weeks, stitching came apart, and color faded after a couple of washes. The uniform was also inappropriate for combat because it made a rustling sound with movement and melted in fire.

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Most importantly, the "designer" uniform was also too flimsy for Russian winters, because instead of natural textiles, like cotton, linen and wool, it was made of new high-tech materials. The Russian soldiers joked that at minus 15 Celsius they started jumping up and down to keep warm, and at minus 20, they couldn’t wait for the enemy to shoot them to spare them from freezing to death. Putin’s current defense minister banned Yudashkin’s invention the minute he assumed his post in 2012, prompting the famed fashionista to blame the Russian military authorities for "playing Dolce & Gabbana" rather than following his design recommendations.

Current Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made a series of his own innovations. Since Shoigu has no military experience himself, he didn’t want to visually appear as being outranked by his army men. Shoigu introduced the limit to the number of medals worn on the ceremonial military dress to 10, allowing only those earned in combat. Until then, Russian servicemen participating in military parades on Red Square decorated themselves with several dozen medals arranged in four or five rows that didn’t fit on their chests, many of them civilian and, therefore, meaningless.

The most radical change to the Russian uniform was introduced by Putin himself. In September 2020, by presidential decree, Putin banned the famous Russian military papakha headdress, which was worn by Russian, and previously Soviet, generals and high-ranking offices.

Made of the fur, skinned from 3-day-old baby lambs of a special breed called Karakul, these hats kept the Russian generals warm because the fur bristles were thick, densely set and water-repellant. But Putin and Shoigu chose to replace the $317 papakhas with much less costly $79 caps made of rabbit fur.

With the vain Russian military brass having prioritized style and copying the West over functionality in the post-Soviet uniform, it is hardly surprising that their forces are shivering to death as winter sets in on the battlefield.

While the troops look dapper during the famous Russian military parades, pleasing Putin and his lieutenants, they are making good-looking corpses, too.

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