HITCH: Do you have the feeling we are moving ahead a hint too swiftly? That in our quest for fame, for material wealth, we are neglecting the old traditions, the old customs from whence we once drew our strength?

Dunking Stool

In Puritan times, if a woman were a scold or a gossip, she was placed here [in the dunking chair] the seat belt was securely fastened by a number of brave men and true, who proceeded to dunk her in a pond as though she were a donut…. . Unhappily in modern times we have no such convenience. Today if a woman is a gossip, she isn’t dunked, she’s syndicated.

Alfred Hitchcock, Introduction, “Summer Shade”, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (Shamley Productions, 1960).