New York Times, Monday, March 8, 2021

I wrote this puzzle while taking an economics course in college. The class was mostly partial derivatives, but I'd say this makes a better crossword theme.

I got quite lucky that SUPPLY and DEMAND are both six letters; most other lengths wouldn't really work. The theme largely dictated how the grid was constructed with PRICE and QUANTITY forcing black squares along the edge. With that in place, there was only one good spot for ECONOMICS and ADAM SMITH. QUANTITY is definitely not the easiest word to have at the bottom of a stack of three long answers, so I had to start constructing in that section of the grid.

I appreciate the editorial team taking my suggestion of putting axes on the puzzle in the print version. I think it is fun and might make the theme a little clearer.

Constructors used to (maybe some still do) use graph paper to make crosswords. It's funny that this is the opposite, a puzzle that makes a graph.

I hope you enjoyed solving!

I'm friends with one of my b-school econ profs, who also happens to be a novice crossword solver. Not only SUPPLY and DEMAND crossing in the iconic pattern, but PRICE on the Y-axis and QUANTITY on the X-axis? Perfect for him!

Throw in ECONOMICS and ADAM SMITH, and this is the puzzle the economist in me has wanted to make for ages. Several constructors over the years have proposed various SUPPLY / DEMAND concepts, but none of them has felt nearly as strong as this one. Bravo, Eric!

(For non-economists, the SUPPLY line shows that at higher prices, producers want to produce more. The DEMAND line demonstrates that at higher prices, there's less purchasing interest (excepting luxury goods). The intersection of these two lines is the equilibrium point at which the market settles.)

Eric deployed a huge number of black squares in the middle so he could make everything smooth around those fixed SUPPLY and DEMAND letters. Smart thinking. Even with UTOPIA as a bonus, the center is beautiful — with a fantastic repurposing of California's "Golden State" moniker!

I'm impressed at how well he executed on the giant SW and NE corners. Not only are they huge regions, but they both have a themer plus two fixed letters apiece.

Twelve fixed letters cause so many constraints that there have to be trade-offs. Today, that was an excess of proper names. I vaguely recognize Philip AHN from "Kung Fu," but crossing him with CHOPRA could be a minefield for newer solvers. I'll be curious to see if my old econ prof can solve this one or not. He's not a sci-fi fan, so SMAUG may cause him to give up as well, but those crossings feel fairer.

I imagine this puzzle could generate some pushback on ADAM SMITH being featured — the "invisible hand" is ideologically divisive, to say the least — but as a believer that capitalism is the worst of all systems, except for all the rest, I thoroughly enjoyed this offering.