Happy Duffer Thanksgiving 11/28/08

Welcome to

The Brain sent me these pictures from Manitoba

To see all of the pictures that Jen took, click here.


	Happy Thanksgiving!

Romeoville, IL 11/21/08
Attendance 23

The Whites End Their Winning streak! See Stats
Eddie "The Anvil" decided to "Pull Rank" and give his Red jersey a rest. The Brain was AWOL, so Tweedy got the call and put on a Red sweater and borrowed Stump's goalie mask and helmet. (Tweedy took his helmet out of the car and the cold temperatures caused all of the padding to fall off.) The Reds got off to a fast start when Bill the Maestro and Back hand Johnny solved the Anvil midway through the first period to give the Reds a 2-0 lead. Art cut the lead in half, but Johnny closed out the scoring with a goal to give Tweedy and the Reds a 3-1 lead after 1 period. The Reds extended the lead to 4-1 when Beak banged a pass off of the boards to spring the Maestro for a break away. Johnny Z added a pair to give the Reds the dreaded 5 goal lead. Mini Wheezer said that the 2 goal lead is the worst lead in hockey, because you are only one bad bounce away from a panicky 1 goal lead, but a 5 goal lead is the worst lead in Duffers hockey because the team with the 5 goal lead starts pacing themselves for a few cold ones after the game. Right after he said that, Special Ed cut the lead to 6-2 (His second in 2 weeks)


	Tweedy says, "Let's Play 2"

and then Art scored again to make it 6-3. The Anvil kept the game from getting out of hand when Beak and Harvey peppered him with a plethora of flutter blasts that he deftly turned away. The Maestro was fighting a bad cold and felt like a retired Duffer, but he somehow managed to score his 4th goal and close out the scoring . Tweedy picked up the 7-3 win, only 22 hours after playing goalie for his Wags Men's league game. Tommy and Dan Granato helped him to a 10-4 win. I read the following quote last week and thought Mike Quigley might remind you of someone.

BY MARK BROWN Sun-Times Columnist
"When he's excited about a new project, the thoughts come firing out of Mike Quigley's brain like a popcorn popper with the lid removed. You reach for a handful, and there's more zinging off in another direction. It's good stuff, but you still wish you could find the lid."
Tweedy Tom and Dan Granato played in a Midnight Hockey game that looked like a Gerry Springer show at times. Read More…..

E-mail from Chicago Wolves Coach, Don Granato

Smurf (Jason Christi) and I intend to make it to a Duffers game at some point...we just have too many Fridays taken. Hope all is well,

Perfect Attendance Stays at 7!

The following guys still have perfect attendance:

Maestro, Beak, Bookie, Frank, Stump, Terry, and Hacksaw .

Go to Page 2 for Beak's Annual "I give Thanks" message


	Dan Granato and Tom Zagorski

Fourth Annual Thank You Letter

4 years ago, when I came home from Peoria, after 24 hours of nonstop fun with old friends, young friends and new friends, I realized how lucky I was to be playing hockey at the age of 64.782 with great guys every week! I wrote a Thank You letter that made Mr. and Mrs. Anvil shed a tear or two. I'm sort of sorry about that, but I can't resist making a goalie cry, so here is my forth annual thank you letter to all of the people that I have been blessed with, because of my involvement with hockey.

(If you are doing the math, this should be my 5th Thank You letter, but I forgot to say thanks last year.) I'm Sorry


	I won't repeat many of the things that I gave thanks for in the past, even though I am still thankful for all of them. You can read them on line by clicking the links below. I give Thanks for My good health, that allowed me to play over 30 fun filled hockey games last year without any pain and without any pills. (Although a post game beer helps a lot, Thanks to Brinks and his assistant, Mini Wheezer.) I don't even hurt on Saturday mornings. Hockey is a wonderful game. When I played touch football and basketball when I was in my 40s, I used to hurt for a few days. All of the laughter and fun would not be possible without the great guys that make up the Duffers Hockey Team. We were able visit Uncle Bob, an old friend that we miss dearly. We played 3 games in 3 days, went to 2 MLB games and watched the Coyotes play Hockey. Thanks to Uncle Bob and Mike Presecki for making that trip possible and thanks to the King for talking me in to staying a few more days, so that I could see the Grand Canyon and a Cub game. Last September, I participated in my 50th High School reunion and that experience reminded me of how much I have to be thankful for. We were able to get only 30 of the 120 graduates of the Holy Trinity High School class of 1958. Many had passed away, others were not found, while others were too sick to travel. Not one of the guys that made it to the gathering was lucky enough to join us in our Friday Fun Fests. I give thanks that we are able to replace some of the Duffers that left us with great guys that quickly learn what it takes to be a Duffer. Scott "The Bookie" Wayne quickly filled a need for refreshments in the young guy's locker room and Terry quickly volunteered to fill in for Perry, one of the greatest Duffers ever. Thanks to Terry, we will be able to have our annual Thanksgiving breakfast of Beer and Brats. I give thanks for my wife Carole, who gave me 4 wonderful kids that make me proud every day of my life. How lucky can I be? Those kids gave us 8 grandchildren and 1 great granddaughter. I'll soon be 69 years old, and I have a Mom that is still taking care of herself at the age of 95! She taught me to love everyone regardless of religion or color. That allowed me to teach children of color with love and kindness. I found that most of them had parents that wanted the same things that I wanted for my children. While teaching for 39 years, I met hundreds of people of all races and religions who were generous, kind and intelligent. I feel sorry for people who never had the chance to meet these people and their only impression of people of color are the thugs on the 10 O'clock News. I want to thank you for not sending me any of the hateful e-mails like the one I received yesterday from a religious relative. (He never had the chance to meet all of the wonderful people of color that helped me through some hard times.) The e-mail was about a Black Widow coming soon to the White House. I sent the following reply: "45 years ago we had a white widow in the White House, our young son, Ken, couldn't understand why his parents were crying. I remember where I was when I found out that Kennedy was killed and the look on the person's face that told me is etched in my memory. I hope we can keep the bigots for making history repeat. The hope that has been shown around this country and the world since the election is very much like the hope that JFK gave us, but there are people that hate Catholics as much as they hate Blacks. Hatred is a sickness that is hard to cure. I hope and pray that Obama can survive long enough to clean up the mess Washington." I remember that like it was yesterday, then it dawned on me that no one under 50 suffered through the death of a president, so they can joke and laugh about something that they think could never happen.http://www.lopatka.net/Links2008/index.htm First Thank You Message 2004 Second Thank You Message 2005 Third Thank You Message 2006

Thanksgiving 2001

Duffer BarToons

Go To Buffalo Wild Wings Cartoons

Go To 2006 Thanksgiving Cartoon

Go To 2003 Peoria -Toons

Go To 1988 Cartoons

Go to the Last Duffer News

Links to Duffer Hockey Newsletters

Stats page

Tweedy's Wags Game

Links to Arizona Pictures

http://photos.lopatka.com/main.php?g2_itemId=2551

http://www.lopatka.net/08-04-04/index.htm

http://www.lopatka.net/08-03-28/index.htm

http://www.lopatka.net/08-03-21/index.htm

http://www.lopatka.net/08-03-14/index.htm

http://www.lopatka.net/a08-03-07/index.htm

HOCKEY Quotes from "TO"

10. "Guys, I don't want to tell you half-truths, unless they're completely accurate." - coach Alain Vigneault.

9. "Luc Robitaille is a great kid and good player, but ask anybody on the street and they'd probably think Luc Robitaille is a type of salad dressing." - L.A. Kings owner Bruce McNall on why he brought Wayne Gretzky to Hollywood in 1988.

8. "We only speak two languages here: English and profanity." - Penguins coach Kevin Constantine on the many languages spoken by his team.

7. "He's the kind of guy who will stab you in the back right to your face." - St. Louis Blues superstar Brett Hull on coach Mike Keenan.

6. "We have only one person to blame, and that's each other." - New York Rangers defenseman Barry Beck.

5. "I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body." - Saku Koivu.

4. "Getting cut in the face is a pain in the butt." - Calgary Flames' Theo Fleury.

3. "Wayne came over to the bench one day after seeing (Zdeno) Chara, and said 'That's why I'm quitting.'" - Rangers coach John Muckler, laughing about Wayne Gretzky's comment on Ottawa's 6'9" defenseman Zdeno Chara.

2. "Tell him he's Wayne Gretzky." - Oilers coach Ted Green, after Shaun Van Allen suffered a concussion and couldn't remember who he was.

1. "How would you like it if, at your job, every time you made the slightest mistake a little red light went on over your head and 18,000 people stood up and screamed at you?" - Hall of Fame Montreal Canadiens goalie Jacques Plante.

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