James M. Cain at Thanksgiving.

Here's another excerpt from James Thurber's The Years with Ross, which provides an endearing look at one-time New Yorker employee James M. Cain:

It seems that Cain liked to work on the floor, where there was a lot of room, and used to put the Talk [of the Town] department together down there. He once lifted high the hearts of Andy [E.B.] and Katharine White, at a Thanksgiving dinner at his apartment, by putting the turkey, platter and all, on the floor and carving it, blandly going on with the story he was telling, and he told stories exceedingly well. (129)