RIP: Norm "Froggyman" Billion, Amazon penny book seller extraordinaire. Close to seven feet tall. Alternately bald, or with dreadlocks down to his ass. Not someone I'd ever want to work for, but one of the most amusing people I've ever met. Norm's oversized plans -- for world penny book domination; for a national chain of bookstores, supplied by railcars out of Abbotsford HQ; for better, faster Amazon price-altering software and for an endless succession of unheated industrial warehouses stacked floor to ceiling with mass market paperbacks -- often conflicted with reality, sometimes violently, but I always came away from my visits to Froggyman HQ alternately smiling and shaking my head. Norm's endless enthusiasm -- and boundless optimism in technology and capitalism's ability to make his Paul Bunyan-style plans a reality -- strangely moved me; I saw in them more than a passing resemblance to my own.

I can easily picture Norm in Purgatory, hustling up a few souls who'll work cheap, a spare tractor-trailer, a cut-rent industrial warehouse, and the local church and service-club sales. "Got anything left? I'll take 'em all!"

Norm's obituary, from the Abbotsford News:

"BILLION, NORMAN

Passed away August 24, 2007 in a tragic motorcycle accident while living in Abbotsford, British Columbia. He was born in Floriana, Malta on April 5, 1962 and afterwards grew up in Windsor, Ontario. Norm's passing is a huge loss to those who knew and loved him. He was young at heart and full of character. He will be especially missed by his daughter Amanda. He will also be missed by his parents Patricia and Joseph Billion, brothers Chris and Steven and sister Juliette, as well as other family and friends. He was a great father, brother and son."
- posted by cjb @ 5:49 PM