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We were all bummed about news last week that “The New Yankee Workshop” was ceasing production. And, in case you’ve forgotten, this Saturday is Halloween.

I think you see where this is going.

By the power vested in me by the Radio Shack Battery Club, I declare Saturday to be “International Dress Like Norm Day.” This is the time to break out your flannel shirts, your tool belt, your safety glasses, your fake beard.

In honor of Norm Abram, we’re asking all his fans to dress like the man, take a photo of yourself in costume and send it to me by midnight Monday, Nov. 2, at chris.schwarz@fwmedia.com. The person who sends in the best photo (as determined by our staff), will win a great prize. What is the prize, you ask? Well, it’s one of two things. We have to dig through our archives to see if we still have them. But rest assured that if you like “The New Yankee Workshop” then you are going to want this prize.

Visit this blog later this week for more details on this point.

I’m encouraging/ordering the entire staff of the magazine to observe this important date (we’re celebrating IDLND on Friday). However, some of us who shall remain nameless, are going to have to go shopping for flannel and safety glasses.

– Christopher Schwarz


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Showing 12 comments
  • Emerson Alleyne

    Since Norm has been going for twenty years, is it possible to get copies of all his shows. I will certainly like to purchase his works.I will miss his presentations.He has been an inspiration to me for the last six years.

  • Don Butler

    Too bad.

    My looks are so far from The Norm’s appearance it would be just bizzare for me to try.

    I might qualify for the pity prize!

    Fun idea, though.

    d

  • Derek Lyons

    Dangit – and I just shaved my beard this morning.

  • Randy Kimery

    I wonder if my manager will mind while I work my shift at Sears? Can I wear a "BLUE" flannel shirt?

    Who cares….I’m in!

  • Tom Iovino

    Chris –

    I have assembled my Imperial Normtrooper outfit and will be properly bedecked…

    Plaid UNITE!

  • Joe Heasley

    Sorry to see the end of an era. I think a day of flannel
    would be a great way to honor Norm.

  • Ed Furlong

    This will be easy for many of your readers; for many of us, every day is IDLND! In fact, I look forward to the cool days of fall so I can get back into my flannel shirts. Bear, jeans, toolbelt, safety glasses, all just part of my everyday woodgeek wear! My wife is long suffering, to say the least.

    Thanks again for honoring Norm, who, along with my father-in-law, were the sources of inspiration and instruction for me when I started out. All the bad joints and mismeasured work is fully my responsibility.

    Ed Furlong

  • Bruce Jackson

    I’m in, even if Norm of Workshop and Norm of Cheers have more hair on top than me!

    I may have to buy the flannel shirt – left mine in Michigan when I moved to Florida – Florida and flannel just don’t go together, unless you doubled your daily aspirin to thin your blood. Will paint thinner work (Ha!)?

  • Take Alberts

    Well it’s Dress Like Norm Day, not Look Like Norm Day.

  • John Cashman

    I look a little more like Norm on Cheers than Norm on the New Yankee Workshop. Will that still count?

  • Charles

    Arrrggh! I just shaved off a 2 week old beard last night… why couldn’t I have been slightly more lazy.

    Fun idea! You should consider making some sort of collage of all the entries and sending it to him… that should sufficiently freak him out…

  • Rick Waters

    Count me in! Wonder if I can grow a new beard by then. Just shaved off a 4-day growth this morning.

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