Indian state known for its tea and silk / MON 5-2-2016 / Letter between sigma and epsilon / Émile of the Dreyfus affair / Vermont skiing destination

Hi, it's me, first-Monday-of-the-month-guest-blogger Annabel, and no crossword puzzle can ever cross me! OK, that's totally not true, I got stuck on the right side for awhile on this one, and finished it in 24:43. But that's only because I took a break to get ice cream from the dining hall. We have sundaes every Sunday...good stuff.

Ahem, the point is it's another Annabel Monday!

Constructor: Paula Gamache

Relative difficulty: Easy



THEME: ME TOO — Theme answers are two words, both of which end in "me."

Theme answers:

• PRIME TIME (18A: 8:00-11:00 p.m., TV-wise)
• RHYME SCHEME (23A: ABAB in a poem, e.g.)
• ME TOO (41A: Copycat's comment...or, phonetically, a hint to this puzzle's theme)
• WELCOME HOME (56A: Greeting to a returning soldier, maybe)
• BLAME GAME (62A: What a finger-pointer "plays")

Word of the Day: LYNX (29A: Wildcat with tufted ears ) —

ok yes many of us know what a lynx is but i just wanted the excuse to put a picture of this cute kitty

A lynx (/ˈlɪŋks/;^[2] plural lynx or lynxes^[3]) is any of the four species within the Lynx genus of cats. The name "lynx" originated in Middle English via Latin from the Greek word λύγξ,^[2] derived from the Indo-European root leuk- ("light, brightness")^[4] in reference to the luminescence of its reflective eyes.^[4]

Neither the caracal, sometimes called the desert lynx, nor the jungle cat, called the jungle lynx, is a member of the Lynx genus.

So, despite what I said about getting stuck on the right side, this puzzle went pretty smoothly for me! (Honestly, it wouldn't have been a problem if I had remembered any Greek.) I liked how the fill featured both YOWZA and YOWIE, although I must add that a YOINK or a YIKES would be the icing on the cake. (Future Monday theme: Exclamations starting with Y?) I wasn't super impressed by the rest of the fill - didn't learn any words, am getting very tired of seeing ALTO in every single puzzle because then I have to go listen to "Alto's Lament" like five times in a row -  but it wasn't bad enough to go all Rex on. LOOIES was funny, I definitely did not know that was a word.

The theme was OK, pretty Monday-ish for sure. It wasn't a lame theme, but at the same time, the constructor missed the opportunity to make a meme reference. ("I can haz the answers?")

Bullets:

• SOPH (15A: Next year's jr.) — IN JUST A FEW MONTHS THIS IS GOING TO BE ME -   AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
• ELF (40D: Santa's little helper)— The correct clue for this is "the third funniest Will Ferrell movie after Anchorman and Talladega Nights,"but I'll let it slide. Ahem. Anyway:
• PEPSI (1A: Coke rival) — OK, so, what's the consensus on Coke v. Pepsi in the crosswording world? Personally, I say Pepsi is better in general, but Coke is better out of a glass bottle, but Diet Pepsi is better than anything else because it just is. There's just soda many possible arguments you could make about this one. 
• SHEEN (13D: Luster) — This one just makes me nostalgic for a really weird cartoon:

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student.

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