Geez Louise, what is it with Microsoft attracting periodic charges of antisemitism by people messing around with fonts? Perhaps you recall that whole "NYC" thing, when somebody noticed that "NYC" in the Webdings font looks like "Eye Heart New York," but in Wingdings it looks like "skull-and-crossbones star-of-David thumbs-up." Well, if that one was too subtle for you (!), now there's even more overt grounds for the paranoid to decry the bigotry inherent in Microsoft's fonts: faithful viewer Chief notes that a CNET article is reporting the presence of two swastikas in one of the symbol fonts that ships with Microsoft Office. Whoops! Someone call Webster's and tell them we've got a new definition for the word "careless." Oh, and also for "dumbass."

Microsoft claims the whole thing was an accident and is understandably denying any and all "malicious intent," noting that the swastika-bearing font in question, Bookshelf Symbol 7, was "derived from a Japanese font set." By so stating, Microsoft is presumably hoping to remind offended customers that the swastika predates its appropriation by the Nazis by at least hundreds of years and is common in Japan where, to buddhists, it symbolizes "the feet or footprints of the Buddha." Or maybe the company just means "hey, Japan was buddy-buddy with Hitler back in World War II-- go yell at them about slapping Nazi propaganda into fonts that we're apparently shipping without ever having looked at." In any event, it's actually pretty easy to believe that Microsoft included the swastikas without noticing; everyone knows they don't test software before they ship it, so the entire issue of intent goes straight out the window. For all they know, there's hardcore porn in the About box.

(There isn't, but we know you're dying to check. We'll wait.)

Okay, so there you go: Japanese font, buddhist symbol, allegations of corporate antisemitism defused. Remember, kiddies: just because they're evil doesn't mean they're bigots. Of course, there are other questionable factors lurking in Microsoft products that may be slightly harder to explain. For instance, you all know and loathe Clippy, that much-maligned animated "intelligent assistant" whose only job in Microsoft Office appears to be to say "it looks like you're writing a letter" thirty times a day. What many of you may not realize is that before his commercial debut, the beta-stage Clippy was named "Lil' Führer," sported a narrow black moustache, and always spouted the catch-phrase "it looks like you're invading Poland." If Microsoft has a reasonable explanation for that, we'd love to hear it.