Hello, and welcome to a Kitty-Kcit blog.
The preamble:
Clashes occur in three cells. Two entries with clashes and three without are subject to the TRANSFIGURATION implied by a song from the unclued answer, being replaced by five other synonyms. New crossing entries created by replacements are all verifiable in Chambers Dictionary (2016).
With the shenanigans all in the grid rather than the clues it was a case of solving normally, just bearing in mind those few clashes.
The first two across entries were among those I solved at the proofreading stage. [These days we have to work from an image of the puzzle; fellow blogger MC Rapper very kindly provides the OCR-generated clues, but always with a reminder to check for errors.] This set me off on a top-down solve and I found everything tractable enough that the grid filled steadily from there.
Accordingly, the unclued entry revealed itself early:
I haven’t actually seen this film, but know of it, and its well-known song did spring to mind given the right prompt …
I’d been lulled into a false sense of security as there were no clashes in the top half of the grid and I’d almost forgotten about them. Eventually I sorted out the entries around the two clashes in the SW. Following this, I still had a knot of clues in the SE and a couple of others remaining when a repetition of “body” as a definition set something bleeping. Aha! There are indeed five bodies, and, of course:
EV’RYBODY WANTS TO BE A CAT
So the required TRANSFIGURATION would be from bodies to cats. PANTHER actually leapt into place before I had found the body! CHASING this came the CHEETAH, then SIAMESE, MOUSER and finally, in the CORPORATION, not a fat cat but a COLOURPOINT. Purr! Thanks Kcit.
| # | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | ||
| Across | ||
| 1a | SCREENS | Loose rock initially near some rows of trees (7) |
| SCREE (loose rock) + initially Near Some | ||
| 6a | SCIROC | Small reptile penetrated by one hot wind (6) |
| S (small) + CROC (reptile) penetrated by I (one) | ||
| 11a | RAFT | American crowd sees Democrat avoiding conscription there (4) |
| D (Democrat) avoiding [d]RAFT (conscription there [America]) | ||
| 12a | ALLY | Friendly country absolutely dispatching soldiers (4) |
| [re]ALLY (absolutely) taking out (dispatching) RE (soldiers) | ||
| 13a | RICHT | Intense temperature appropriate in Aberdeen (5) |
| RICH (intense) + T (temperature) | ||
| 15a | SUMP | Quantity of liquid around far side of stream where water drains? (4) |
| SUP (quantity of liquid) around the end (far side) of streaM | ||
| 16a | USES | Exploits English aboard American vessel (4) |
| E (English) in (aboard) USS (American vessel) | ||
| 17a | OSSI | Former European is very much regressing (4) |
| IS and SO (very much) reversed (regressing) | ||
| 18a | GIBS | Dated terms of reproach from Institute adopted by Irish playwright initially? (4) |
| I (Institute) in (adopted by) GBS (Irish playwright – George Bernard Shaw – initially) | ||
| 19a | SILT | Sediment requiring elevation for foot? Not the first time (4) |
| S[t]ILT (elevation for foot?) without the first T (not the first time) | ||
| 20a | PERSONA | Numbers enthralled by a salesman, revolutionary character (7) |
| NOS (numbers) inside (enthralled by) A REP (a salesman) all reversed (revolutionary) | ||
| 21a | PIRN | Note scoundrel overturning Scottish reel (4) |
| N (note) and RIP (scoundrel) reversed (overturning) | ||
| 22a | SAIN | Cure old fault restricting American (4) |
| SIN (fault) around (restricting) A (American) | ||
| 25a | SOCIETY becomes SIAMESE |
Body of people, old French company, found in disgusting place (7) |
| O (old) and CIE (French company) found in STY (disgusting place) | ||
| 28a | ORRA | Weapon mostly backfiring, useless at Culloden (4) |
| ARROw (weapon) without the last letter (mostly) reversed (backfiring) | ||
| 30a | PALI | Something like Sanskrit in China and India (4) |
| PAL (china) + I (India) | ||
| 31a | AÇAI | About to back excellent nutritional fruit (4) |
| CA (about) reversing (to back) + AI (excellent) | ||
| 32a | REED | Water-plant assessed critically with appearance discounted (4) |
| RE[view]ED (assessed critically) with VIEW (appearance) removed (discounted) | ||
| 34a | AGES | Carries on without leader for a long time (4) |
| [w]AGES (carries on) without its first letter (leader) | ||
| 36a | COIGN | Bridge team leaving to transfer keystone (5) |
| NS (bridge team) leaving CO[ns]IGN (to transfer) | ||
| 37a | GRIN | Local branch expressing a sign of pleasure (4) |
| GR[a]IN (local branch) removing (expressing) A | ||
| 38a | YEAH | Agreed a lot of time needed by hospital (5) |
| A lot of YEAr (time) by H (hospital) | ||
| 39a | INDETERMINATE | Unspecified amalgam of Internet and media (13) |
| An anagram (amalgam) of INTERNET and MEDIA | ||
| 40a | MATTER becomes MOUSER |
Cinematographer’s mask beginning to reveal body (6) |
| MATTE (cinematographer’s mask) + the beginning to Reveal | ||
| 41a | WAVERER | Our group is right to suppress a very uncertain figure (7) |
| WE’RE (our group is) and R (right) covering (to suppress) A and V (very) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1d | STRAUSS | Society to bundle up to welcome a composer (7) |
| S (society) + TRUSS (to bundle up) taking in (to welcome) A | ||
| 2d | CHASSIS becomes CHEETAH |
The King with Princess Anne informally joined body (7) |
| Colloquially (… informally) CHAS (The King) with SIS (Princess Anne), joined together | ||
| 3d | REFUEL | Further encourage arbiter over fight after Duke’s fled (6) |
| REF (arbiter) over [d]UEL (fight) once D’s left (after Duke’s fled) | ||
| 4d | EATS | Places at table missing initial food (4) |
| sEATS (places at table) without the first letter (missing initial) | ||
| 5d | NILSSON | Historic opera-singer loves reduced aria (7) |
| NILS (loves) + SONg (aria) without the last letter (reduced …) | ||
| 6d | STYMIE | Messy situation for me, but offering no new obstruction (6) |
| STY (messy situation) + MI[n]E (for me), but without N (offering no new) | ||
| 7d | CORPORATION becomes COLOURPOINT |
Policeman with statement having secured murderer’s latest body (11) |
| COP (policeman) with ORATION (statement) around (having secured) murdereR’s latest | ||
| 8d | ICINGS | International contralto in G & S providing decorative stuff (6) |
| I (international) + C (contralto) + IN + G & S | ||
| 9d | OTHO | I became Emperor briefly, having only a little foothold (4) |
| Part of (having only a little) foOTHOld | ||
| 10d | ACTION | Splinter group heading off litigation (6) |
| fACTION (splinter group) minus the first letter (heading off) | ||
| 12d | À VOTRE SANTÉ | Possibly never a toast? It surely is! (11, three words) |
| An anagram of (possibly) NEVER A TOAST | ||
| 14d | TOSA | Puccini opera excluding canine – Butterfly’s dog? (4) |
| TOS[c]A (Puccini opera) excluding C (canine) | ||
| 20d | PRY | Beg to kick out a snoop (3) |
| PR[a]Y (beg) removing (to kick out) A | ||
| 21d | PALLID | Wan, sick, upset, confined to flat (6) |
| ILL (sick), reversed (upset) inside (confined to) PAD (flat) | ||
| 22d | STASIMA | Spinning satellite crashing into part of Earth prompting tragic songs (7) |
| SAT (satellite) reversed (spinning …) going into (crashing into) SIMA (part of Earth) | ||
| 23d | CREMATE | Make fuss about money to burn (7) |
| CREATE (make fuss) around (about) M (money) | ||
| 24d | CADAVER becomes PANTHER |
Article in recording supported by state body (7) |
| A (article) in CD (recording) supported by AVER (state) | ||
| 25d | SPEC | Description of work required bit curtailed (4) |
| SPECk (bit) cut short (curtailed) | ||
| 26d | MIDGET | Small example, partway through answer? (6) |
| MID (partway through) + GET (answer) | ||
| 27d | TAGGER | Shock with son going off to be graffiti artist (6) |
| [s]TAGGER (shock) with S (son) removed (going off) | ||
| 29d | REHEAR | Try again? Back, after receiving expression of incomprehension (6) |
| REAR (back), after receiving EH (expression of incomprehension) | ||
| 33d | MONA | A name in the Louvre given elevation? (4) |
| A plus NOM (name in the Louvre) reversed (given elevation) | ||
| 35d | EYNE | Sides of every nose showing peepers from historic times (4) |
| Outer letters (sides) of EverY NosE | ||
There’s the usual setter’s blog here: https://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/transfiguration/
Thanks for the blog. Definitely a feline trend in the pseudonyms…
Thanks Kcit! 😺
Because I started at the top I got THE ARISTOCATS before my grid was half filled, but that was as far as I could go (and wanted to go) with the theme at that point. It was a pleasure working through the clues, and I got a long way before I encountered the first clash: CADAVER/YEAH. The other two clashes tumbled just before the finish, when I got PALLID and MIDGET to clash with SOCIETY.
Using the hint ‘every body’ from the song title, I singled out the entries whose clues had ‘body’ in them, and the cats revealed themselves one by one, beginning with SIAMESE and ending with the impressive COLOURPOINT.
Thanks to Kcit for creating such an original and classy themed puzzle, which must have taken a lot of skill and effort to design. And thanks to Kitty for the blog (and for waiting patiently for another solver to appear).
Yes, thanks, KCIT. Would CHAUSIE also work in 2d?