Thanksgiving ’17
My dad—Sam Filreis—passed away suddenly on Thanksgiving a year ago. In 2007 he and I went on a river cruise up the Rhone in southern France, and brought back 4 bottles of a perfect Beaujolais, purchased after spending a happy afternoon drinking with the proprietors of a backcountry vineyard. When Sam died last year, there was one bottle not yet consumed. So last night, in his honor, we opened it, toasted this extraordinarily kind man, lit the Yahrzeit candle, and expressed our gratitude. And the wine was amazing. Photos below (click on any image for a larger view and unique URL), including a shot of the perfect memorial wine.
Al Filreis is Kelly Professor, Faculty Director of the Kelly Writers House, Director of the Center
for Programs in Contemporary Writing, Co-Director of PennSound, and Publisher of Jacket2—all at the University of Pennsylvania. Among his books are Secretaries of the Moon,
Wallace Stevens & the Actual World, Modernism from Left to Right, and Counter-Revolution of the Word: The Conservative Attack on Modern Poetry, 1945-60. His new book is 
Founder/Faculty Director, 