truman capote's "the thanksgiving visitor" made me think rightaway of harper lee, who was his very good friend, wasn't she. at least, she modelled dill in mockingbird after him. the hendersons were virtually another ewell family, and odd's thanksgiving dinner visit smacks of walter cunningham going home with jem and scout for dinner and the molasses disaster. some holiday stories are lovely and stick with you. just the other day my dad and i were listening to a recording of child's christmas in wales read by dylan thomas himself. "one christmas was so much like another in those years around the sea town corner..." "...all the christmases rolled towards the two-tongued sea..." "...in goes my hand.. and out comes mrs prothero and the firemen..." "december in my memory was white as lapland although there were no reindeers..." "...sleek as jaguars and horrible-whiskered...the neighbour's polar cat" "...the wise cats never appeared..." "...eternal, ever since wednesday..." "...this was better than all the cats in wales lined up on a wall..." "...and ernie jenkins, he likes fires..." "..you mean the postman went rat-tat-tat? i mean that the bells the children could hear were inside them..." gareth hughes, our european history tutor, used to say that to understand the welsh we had to understand this story. i don't know that i've understood the welsh any better, though i have understood why dylan thomas can tell a story and i can't.