Actress Priyanka who was 2000's Miss World / MON 3-8-21 / Big name in transmission repair / Dragon in The Hobbit / Actor Philip with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

ADAM SMITH is in here too for some reason (32D: "Father" of 13-Down)

Word of the Day: Priyanka CHOPRA (44D: Actress Priyanka who was 2000's Miss World) —

Priyanka Chopra Jonas (pronounced [prɪˈjəŋka ˈtʃoːpɽa]; born 18 July 1982) is an Indian actress, singer, and film producer. The winner of the Miss World 2000 pageant, Chopra is one of India's highest-paid and most popular entertainers. She has received numerous accolades, including a National Film Award and five Filmfare Awards. In 2016, the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri and Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in the next two years Forbes listed her among the World's 100 Most Powerful Women. (wikipedia)

Haven't despised a Monday like this in a while. First, the subject: so dull, so fundamentally uninteresting to me, that even had this been slotted on the correct day for its difficulty (i.e. Wednesday) and even if the fill had been good (it's not, really), and even if the puzzle had been carefully, thoughtfully edited (it's really, really not), I still wouldn't have found it to my taste. But leaving mere taste aside, still, yuck. I'm not even going to waste more than a few sentences talking about this. I can't. Dwelling on this thing feels like self-harm. It's Monday, so when it took me a full minute just to get the little NW quadrant, I knew something was very, very wrong. Every single one of the Acrosses required multiple crosses to understand. Even YOU'D was a total mystery, given its clue (4D: "___ be surprised"). It's a Giant corner with non-obvious clues; not not not a Monday. 

But even if we leave difficulty to the side, we're still left with the unforgivably terrible cluing on PRICE. I needed, no joke, every single cross to get it, and even then, I just stared at it. There is no indication that it is theme material. None. Remember—it's Monday. If you want to get all wacky and tough much later in the week, that's your prerogative, but this is just stupid. Again, not stupid 'cause it's tough, but stupid because you absolutely *have* to give the solver *some* indication that PRICE is theme material. In the NW corner of a Monday, to just leave a solver staring at PRICE as the answer for *that* clue (1D: Y-axis)? Awful. Awful. I'm familiar with the concept of supply and demand, but I actually had to look up the full graph—never knew the PRICE / QUANTITY part of it (or, not having had Econ since 1988, I did know, once, but forgot). So that clue for PRICE literally never made sense, even when I was done, until I looked up the graph. It makes no sense (no. sense.) that the clues on PRICE and QUANTITY give you No indication of their themeness. And your revealer is just ECONOMICS!?!?!?! Is this ... ECONOMICS? Just the supply / demand graph? That's it? Again, looking things up, it appears that supply & demand is indeed the "theoretical basis of modern ECONOMICS" but somehow ECONOMICS seems like a much, much, much broader term than this alleged graph can possibly convey. And then the fill, just an avalanche of ERE ESAU ELIE ESO ESPY ENYA BAHAI etc. And TISKET!? Oof. Look, even if you desperately wanted to make an ECONOMICS puzzle, I cannot believe that this is what you go with. I double can't believe that this is how you edit it. Or not edit it, it seems. That PRICE / QUANTITY cluing decision ... on a Monday ... I just ... my kingdom, all of it, for a new editor. Someone who is careful and who cares. Please. Please. (Actually, you can't have my kingdom; just put somebody new and hungry in the editor's chair, it's time)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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