Door Knob of the Day - Special, International Edition!

Photo generously provided by the
Blogger's globtrotting Mom

We are so pleased to bring you this very splendid doorknob, just in from The Onassis Foundation Building in Athens, Greece!  Our first international submittal and it is soooooo Greek to me!

Greek yogurt is smooth, velvety and has more protein than regular yogurt: I think the same can be said for this really neat doorknob.

Rounded and smooth, it has a lot body like fine Greek olive oil.

It is also octagonal - interesting and a little sharp like Greek feta cheese.

This is a doorknob with complexity and there are a lot of complexes named after Greeks.

Perfect proportion describes this doorknob, also no arms, much like the classic statues of antiquity.

And last but not least, we would be remiss in not noting the finish which evokes the lustre of Grecian Formula.

Below, you will find a picture of the door itself and it's happy lucky partner door 

which so elevate our thinking on means of ingress and egress 

that we hardly know where to begin.

So that is where we will end.

Very beautiful Greek pórtes - thank you so much Mom for the photo.

May 2014 meeting summary

This was our second meeting at the new location, Grumpy's Roseville, and once again almost everyone showed up! Although we still haven't seen anyone from Davis, which is kind of a bummer because we totally moved here to be close to them*.

Minutes of the May 7, 2014 meeting

Following the meeting, which started and ended on time, Tom Modec of Kaba Access presented an overview of the E-Plex Wireless Access Control System.  

Summary and Tom's contact info below the break - click "Read More"

Door Knob of The Day

Once again, we are indebted to Dana Lee, CML
 for this very fine photo.  

One early spring day back in the 70s there was a single engine float plane that blew off course on the way from Duluth up to Thunder Bay.  The pilot made an emergency landing and she and (most of) her plane washed ashore on one of the northernmost Apostle Islands.

Luckily, the plane’s cargo was stock for a fishing camp and the pilot was able to retrieve the fishing tackle and booze. The island had suffered a blow-down some years prior and the dense tangle of logs and brush along with boughs from the surviving pines provided ample material for firewood and rough shelter.

The stranded aviatrix passed the summer gathering firewood, fishing, boozing and failing to construct a raft until mid-October when a fish-smoking experiment got out of control.  She escaped unharmed, but the conflagration rapidly spread through the dense brush.

Overnight, the fire consumed such a portion of vegetation on the island that the smoke column was spotted by a barge in the shipping channel 30 miles away. The coastguard was called and in a matter of hours the lost pilot was rescued and headed back to civilization to pick up where she’d left off. 

Unfortunately, falling out of the sky made the prospect of flying a plane for a living less lustrous; the pilot developed an anxiety disorder which grounded her charter business. At the time there was a new paradigm for treating psychological trauma through visual arts:  by being able to physically manifest anxiety through painting, sculpture or fiber arts, the individual could acknowledge the source and move beyond it.

Dorothea Ruth of the Port of Duluth, for that’s who it was, never did fly again.  But she did go on to have a successful career in home décor and, ultimately, a popular line of door hardware which evoked her Northern Island aesthetic: sticks, rocks, and rafts that will not float.

Internet locksmith scams present major threat to security - who knew?

Dune Lawrence at Bloomberg News has written an article which I saw via Cory Doctrow's article at BoingBoing and it turns out that the widespread, spamming-fake-locksmith scams could be an even more serious security issue because the techniques used to hijack entire markets of legitimate locksmiths can also be used to hijack, say, the local Secret Service office.

We all know that these pervasive scams have been a serious security issue for almost a decade now and it's pretty sad that the same old story is still news to some - but at least it's not going unnoticed and it is being reframed and escalated via fresh channels.

That said, there's no better time to redouble our efforts to bring this issue to the forefront of the national consciousness.

REPORT scammers!  This problem is not going away unless we make it go away and there's nothing like a history of willful disregard to make future charges stick.  Make sure we've got that history.

EDUCATE the public.  Talk to your customers and your friends and your mailman and your Grandma. Bring it up at the game and at the backyard BBQ.  Think about all those folks who always want your Professional Advice for Free - have you got a deal for them!

COMMISERATE with your peers.  No matter how futile it feels, if we combine our voices we will make a cacophonous racket!  There are literally more of us than there are of them by a factor of hundreds-if-not-thousands; we need only stand together to be heard.

And what better place to commiserate and stand together with your fellow locksmith than the monthly meeting of your local association?  The MN Chapter of ALOA meets the first Wednesday of every month, September through June at Grumpy's Bar in Roseville.  Details here.

You do not have to be a member of the chapter to attend up to 2 meetings a year.

You do not have to be sponsored or RSVP to attend a meeting.

April Meeting Minutes

Click to view April Meeting Minutes 

Bob Fuller

We are saddened that Bob Fuller from USA Central Station passed away last weekend.

From the Star Tribune, April 2:

Robert D. "Bob" Fuller, Age 85, of Mendota Heights, passed away peacefully March 30, 2014. Celebration of life Wed., April 16 at Fort Snelling Memorial Chapel, visitation 9 AM, service 10 AM. Memorials preferred to the Robert D. Fuller Communications Scholarship at St. Cloud State or Allina Hospice. 

Bob was an Associate Member of the Minnesota locksmith association and a true friend of the chapter's; he was always ready with something nice to say and his lightheartedness was so welcome and will be so missed.

April Meeting Summary

Spring is struggling to convince us of its honorable intentions here in Minnesota but locksmiths continue to emerge from hibernation in growing numbers in spite of being disappointed time and time again.  We had an attendance of more than 20 regular members at the April meeting - our first in the new location at Grumpy's in Roseville.

The new meeting site is very nice - the room is agreeable and quiet, we have what amounts to private restrooms and bar right down the hall, and there is an elevator so even though we are in the basement, it's not much of a liability.  Plus, the fish & chips is out of this world.

Dinner is a flat $15 for anything (Juicy Lucy, Veggie Burger, Fish & Chips... there was something else, but I've forgotten it) - but there was a coupon on in the Locksmith Guild newsletter this month, so keep your eye out, they may do it again.

We were very pleased to welcome Gene and Maita Simon for the education portion of the evening.  Gene is the Hardware Specialist and represents Major Manufacturing, LAB, and JET Hardware - on this particular evening he presented the latest and greatest from Major Manufacturing.

Full education recap below the page break.

And now for something completely different

Yale Monolock:

Photos courtesy of inimitable Dana Lee, CML

ALOA Advisory re: Scammers and the Internet

Below the page break is the complete text of the latest Locksmith Fraud alert sent by ALOA to all members - a link to the USDOJ website has been added to the "Fraud News & Resources" menu on the right.

April 2 Meeting moved to Grumpy's in Roseville

The monthly meetings have been moved to 

Grumpy's in Roseville.

The reason for this move is that our previous location was a little loud and not great for meetings or presentations and due to major adjacent construction it is about to get hard to get to and much harder to park at.

Please spread the word to everyone you know who may attend - the next meeting (and all meetings for the indefinite future) will be at Grumpy's, 2801 Snelling Ave, Roseville, MN 55113.

Same meeting schedule - I think - show up between 5:30 pm and 7 pm for dinner and social, meeting at 7 and education speaker at 8.

**Edited 3-25 - corrected Grumpy's street address to 2801**

March Meeting Overview

What a great crowd we had at the March meeting!  Between the presence of daylight and the lack of freezing precipitation, the membership was out in force!

We had really nice recaps from Rosemarie on the banquet - which went fantastically well - and from Dana on the Education weekend, also a great success.  We also had elections - and here, I apologize, I don't know what came over me, but I wasn't taking notes.

So take the following with a grain of salt, but I believe it shook down thusly for the 2014-2015 terms (election results and more below the page break):

January Meeting Minutes and Summary

January Meeting Minutes

The January meeting was great!  It was above zero when we got there, and only 6 below when we left - what a delight!  It was a particular pleasure to see the Fullers from USA Central Station and also Mr Fuchs from the same, as well as Ken Stemig from ELR - plus the regular regulars and special guest speaker Brian Johnson from Security Sales Group!

Brian really delivered on the education with a fast-paced, content heavy review of the latest HES strikes, Adams Rite (two-way latches OMG!) and Securitron (wireless power transfer - not even kidding).

The next meeting will be Wednesday, February 5 when we welcome Dan Johnson from Compex.