gnatrat trivia

It's the end of an era. The era when you could buy original art from The Dark Gnat Returns and Happy Birthday Gnatrat directly from me. I am SOLD OUT, thanks to a Wonderful Customer who just bought all these pages and more.

You can still buy original art from other Gnatrat projects, but you probably don't want to. The first two books have always been the most "in demand". Now you'll have to search ebay for outrageously inflated resell prices from some "middle man". First it was oil futures, now Gnatrat pages... When will the American consumer catch a break?!? TWO AMERICAS!!!

I still have TMNT original art for sale, by the way. Supplies are dwindling, but prices are still VERY reasonable!
...

Back to Britain -
A new Brit term I learned:

TOP UP

As in "top up" your cell phone. Is that in common useage here in Two Americas? Pay-as-you-go phones are apparently hugely more popular there, as you can top up somewhere on every block. In stores, or even using your debit card or credit card on an ATM, or as they say "hole in the wall".

They also have little microchips in their cards now, and USA cards are useless in many circumstances because they don't have the chip.

AND PLUS! SIM cards! Tiny little cards you pop into your cell phone to create a totally different cell phone account.

They are embracing all this new technology much more enthusiastically than us. They are completely OBSESSED with topping up, sim cards, Oyster Cards (special all-purpose cards for public transit). Click the link! You can buy or TOP UP your Oyster Card today!

The whole network is pretty amazing. And makes it abundantly clear that only a corrupt band of idiot monkeys could NOT come up with a simple accurate way to vote, or to bypass Wall Street and buy oil direct from Jed Clampett, or make arugula illegal. Or "rocket", as the Brits prefer to call the disgusting weed.