P.A.S.

There was a hint hidden in the P.A.S. clue that only one of you picked up on. The periods between the initials suggested we were likely dealing with a name.

That name?

Peggy Ann Snow.

Who?

From the opening of the new book:

This volume is named after one of my favorite characters in film: Peggy Ann Snow, played by Ann-Margret in the 1978 psychological horror film Magic. The movie contains one of the best—and possibly only—depictions of the peculiar power of one-on-one magic. And Peggy Ann is more or less my ideal person to perform for: engaged, animated, open to the experience, and, crucially, Ann-Margret.

In the movie, Anthony Hopkins plays a ventriloquist and magician who ends up sleeping with an old flame after she falls for him following a particularly intense Do As I Do card trick.

That’s not a joke. That’s something that really happened in a mainstream Hollywood movie.

He does this while his puppet sits impotently in the other room.

The cover of the new book (illustrated as always by our friend Stasia) is a nod to this scene and the seductive potential of amateur magic—figuratively and, apparently, quite literally.

But it presupposes an alternate version of the story where she ends up fucking the puppet instead.

And it’s Anthony Hopkins’ character in the cuck chair outside.