Financial Times 12946 / Neo

1 DEAN MARTIN – anag. of ‘man trained as’ – good anagrind in ‘dissolute’ – American singer and film actor – as a comedian he teamed with Jerry Lewis.

7 LOCK – two def.

9 STAG – two def. – masc.deer which ‘does have as partner’ (I think it’s one against many) / ‘a person who applies for shares in order to sell them at once at a profit’ (Chambers). Clue is written in such a way that one might think it is ‘[He/She]does have …’

10 NOËL COWARD – Noël (Christmas), chicken (coward) – English playwright and actor

11 EASTER – E, aster

12 ONELINER – one(whole), liner (ship)

13 EYEGLASS – solved from the ‘monocle’ def. and ‘viewer’. I don’t get the full significance of ‘replacement viewer switched to’.

15 DATE – d., ate – I am not sure if there is any suggestion of fellatio here

17 RENT – two def. – When you hire a lodging and pay the charges, it’s “cost of living” / rent – past tense of ‘rend’ (cut, slash)

19 FRIEDMAN – fried, man – ref. to Thomas L Friedman, U.S. economist and NYT columnist – author of “The World is Flat”, which I, a Madrasi, dipped into in a friend’s home in Hong Kong during a brief visit there  Correction: See Comment 6 below.

22 AGLITTER – Ag, litter – Neat clue

23 THRACE – rev. of ‘car’ in ‘the’

25 AIRHOSTESS – anag. of ‘it she soars’ – not sure if any airhostess would like to be mentioned as ‘servant’ – one of the not-so-patent anagrams.

26 MAUL – two def.

27 CHAT – two def. – If you want a third def., in India it’s a snack or appetizer made of cooked vegetables (usu. potatoes) and spicy sauces. The ‘a’ is elongated in pronunciation.

28 SHRIEVALTY – shrie(v)alty In ‘wavy hairstyle’ we have an excellent combination of anagrind and anag. fodder. Wow! As for ‘shrievalty’, which I worked out by moving tiles, it’s ‘the office of a sheriff’. Post solving, I checked if any anagram generator returns this word for ‘hairstylev’ and found no matches.

Down

2, 18 ESTUARY ENGLISH– anag.of ‘gay insults here’ – New expression for me. I got ESTUARY first and the second part of the phrase was delayed until I got some crossings. I had to reject ‘shingle’ which can be had with the remaining letters in the anag. fodder. It is a variety of English widely spoken in London and, more generally, in the southeast of England. I know only of billingsgate.

3 NIGHT – nigh (‘near’ as in ‘well-nigh impossible’), t, the last letter (‘closer’) of ‘spirit’ – it’s a euphemism for ‘death’

4 ABNORMAL – abn(o.)rma, L.

5 THE WORSE FOR WEAR – When a dress is so, it’s ‘shabby’. The other def. is new to me. Would be grateful for any assistance.

6 NUCLEI – anag. of ‘in clue’ – An excellent clue!

7 LOWMINDED – not a homophone clue, not a two-def clue. Can’tclassify this readily. Perhaps an allusive &Lit? A noisy herd might low and low repeatedly and loudly and when it does,it’s ‘low-minded’ (‘vulgar’)

8, 20 CURRENT ACCOUNT – No saving grace here!

14 GET WITH IT – ‘twit’ in ‘gehit’ (anag. of ‘eight’) – In ‘rowing eight’ we have an excellent combination of anagrind and anag. fodder. Wow!  

16 DISTASTE – DI, sta(s)te

21 STASIS – the def. is ‘arrest’ (it’s actually a med. term, see dict.) The word was familiar to me; in fact, I used it as the title of a story that I translated from Tamil. ‘Secret police’ may be SS. That’s all! The breakup eludes me at the moment. P.S: See comment 1 below.

24 RUMBA – After Burma became Myanmar perhaps clue-writers don’t use it in the anagram clue for this dance. Romeo gives R. That’s all. The breakup eludes me at the moment. P.S: See comment 1 below.