I wanted to tell a story about a ghost for Christmas, but the only story I had to tell started with a Welsh candlesnuffer. This is an object, not a person; there was not a man from St Asaph lurking in a back room somewhere, emerging only to extinguish flames that had burned too long. This was also not a euphemism for something brazen, though I have racked my brain and come up empty vis-a-vis the question of just what it might be a…
