Listen With Others

A clever puzzle from ‘Eck – many thanks!  I particularly liked the Symmetry of the final eight thematic appearances in the top half of the grid – very smart!

The letters from the Clues provided ALTERNATING HITCH STITCH and IN HIS THIRD SPEECH.

And “Alternating hitch stitch”: I don’t know categorically what that is but I think I can guess, based on the puzzle.

I had some vague recollection of Shakespeare with the phrase, “Hell is empty and all the devils are here” but when I Googled ‘Third speech’, was I the only person for whom the first item to appear was General S. Patton’s rousing – though uncensored speech – to the Third Army?  And there, on rows ten and eleven in the completed grid, in a kind of upturned army hat shape, was PATTON.  Surely The Listener wouldn’t be containing his somewhat unsavoury language?  So I checked on Rows 5, 8 & 9, then gulped.  OK, these must be from the ‘cleaned up’ version – surely TOOL, BOOBY and ANUS weren’t in Patton’s original speech?  I knew he used some language that could be described as ‘anatomical’ but ….???

Enough puerile nonsense.  Great puzzle – many thanks!

Tim / Encota