Tolerating Jolson sounding like a cow? (8)
I believe the answer is:
allowing
'tolerating' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to thinking as well as being present participle verbs.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'jolson sounding like a cow?' is the wordplay.
'jolson' becomes 'Al' (Al Joson singer).
'sounding like a cow?' becomes 'lowing' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'al'+'lowing'='ALLOWING'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for allowing that I've seen before include "Permitting or conceding" , "Granting, permitting" , "Admitting" , "not stopping" , "Giving permission" .)