Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 6, No. 12, December 1961

Alfred Hitchcock’s Note

Dear Readers:

Observe, if you will, and admire, if you please, the aplomb which I display on the cover of this month’s issue. The French have a word for it... sangfroid... which in beatnik argot is translated as “cool, man, cool!” The cold perspiration bespangling my brow bears mute witness to my coolness. So cool am I, in fact, that the skeletal hand has turned green in envy of my imperturbability, and of my absorption in the December AHMM. Out of sight, my forefinger is hovering over a row of buttons, and I am silently debating whether to push the panic-button, the burglar-alarm, or the light-switch?

This trifling interruption has broken my train of thought, which accounts for the look of annoyance on my face. I was about to start PUNCH ANY NUMBER, the novelette by Jack Ritchie. There are other excellent stories in this month’s issue, and it is my earnest hope that you will be so diverted by them that you will take immediate advantage of the Christmas Subscription offer on pages 65 and 66, and bestow AHMM as a gift upon your nearest and dearest, to keep your memory as green as the hand on the cover, throughout the coming year.

AH