Doorknob of the Day - Suprise!

Why so worried, pretty kitty?

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.

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.

And now for something completely different

Yale Monolock:

Photos courtesy of inimitable Dana Lee, CML

Friday, November 1 Door Knob of the Day

The whole wide world awaits you.

There's that thing with door knobs that if you stare up at one long enough, it will open.  Dogs and cats know it - it's really their only recourse if there is no pet-flap - they must be furry little Yuri Gellars, willing the knob to turn, turn, turn until it does! Never mind there always seems to be a person attached to one side or the other when this happens - we should count our blessings that they leave the spoons alone.

There are no dogs or cats in this house - but there are 2 little boys.  They figured out door knobs as soon as they could reach them, but haven't got the keyed deadbolt yet - so this particular door knob is still the recipient of a certain daily dividend of longing gazes.

It's good to get down in front of a door knob now and then to recall that time in our lives when this was an obstacle that was nigh insurmountable*.

On the floor in front of a door knob is also a really great place to review - what's out there?

Grass, rocks, bugs, dirt, adventure, sun, sky, weather, traffic, swingsets, lawn mowers, sheep, lawn darts, danger, dog poop, bocce, holes, thorns, parties, skateboards, bonfires, rain, trees, lakes, Slow Construction Zones, steep hills, ragweed, flora, fauna, fowl, wind, wastewater treatment faclilities, bus stops, rainbows, shopping malls, oceans, airplanes, elephants, ducks, puddles, sidewalks, ditches, ball fields, fences, butterflies, florists, cemetaries, drug stores, potholes, potheads, train tracks, thickets, rabbits, valets, schools, hi-rises, underground bunkers, ice rinks, manhole covers, nematodes, sunsets, corn fields, waterfalls, speed traps, alpine slides, neonatal intensive care units, pigeons, sewers, stars, escalators, hot dog vendors, squirrels, strange smells, lightning, shrubberies, post boxes, curbs, herons, moss, bakeries, libraries, continents, antilock brakes, street lamps, manatees, rugby pitches, precipitous drops, roses, circuses, planets, geese, gravel, tulips, stop lights, happly little trees, cess pools, parking lots, operas, laundromats, toll booths, hammocks, mountains.

Sometimes, sitting on the floor looking up at the door knob is a really great place to be.



*Before we became locksmiths, hah!

Friday Doorknob of the Day, October 25

Hand forged insolent punctuation.

It's the last Friday in October so we are featuring this door knob dressed-up for Halloween.

What is this door knob supposed to be?

A happy little ghost?
A mustache-and-a-half (with a twist, on the side)?
A Who from Whoville?  Or two?

Question marks?

Wait - is it sticking it's tongue out at us?  Is it insolent punctuation?

Very clever!

Somebody give that door knob a Bit-O-Honey.

Friday Door Knob of the Day, October 18, 2013

Ne c'est pas une porte*

In our latest portrait of a classic, photographer/locksmith Dana Lee has employed an off-kilter affect causing the viewer to establish an unusual relationship with the subject. Where normally we would have a vantage looking down upon the knob, in a position of control wherein that object is clearly utile and we the utilizer - in this instance we are placed at an intimate, conversational angle with the apparatus. Our traditional relationship with the door knob is challenged by this and by the knob's position and texture in this composition: it is situated at the edge of the frame and appears made of water, as if any attempt to grasp it would meet with naught but damp palms and frustration. Combine that with the prominent taunting promise of the keyhole - inviting access, unlike the vitreous knob but, alas, too small to fit through. 

I pronounce this a desperate meditation on the weakness of mortal flesh, ironically writ large via the endurance of a mortal-flesh-made object of lovely art deco proportions and likely adequate function.






*It's ajar.

Door Knob of the Day Friday, October 11

Photo credit Dana Lee

"Samuel Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of
his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another, smaller, v. His yellow-grey eyes were
horizontal. The V motif was picked up again by thickish brows rising outward from twin creases above a hooked nose, and his pale brown hair grew down--from high flat temples--in a point on his forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond Satan.”
-Dashiell Hammet, The Maltese Falcon

This is his door knob.

Door Knob of the Day

This door knob says, "Come in and  cozy up with a crocheted afghan and a nice big glass of gin to warm you up and listen to Cowboy Western dramas with lots of shooting and galloping-horse sound effects on the radio while the rain beats the window."