From the "I Thought Of This 2 Years Ago!" Department

It finally has happened and truly, it was only a matter of time: someone has made a "Knight Rider" themed GPS device. As the Gray Lady puts it, Generation X nostalgia and modern technology have come together like peanut butter and jelly. I for one cannot believe that two years have passed since I thought of the idea and it is only now coming to market.

I spent the first week of July, 2006 on the West Coast and borrowed a TomTom GPS device to get myself, my friends and my rental car around. On July 1, I flew to San Diego, watched England lose in penalty kicks to Portugal in the quarterfinals of the World Cup at the San Diego airport while waiting for my friend Steve's flight to arrive from Las Vegas, and then spent 4 days in S.D. before driving up the coast to spend 3 days in La-La Land before heading home on the July 8.

While down South, I drove to the border but not across (we parked in a motel's parking lot and walked into Mexico for tacos in Tijuana), tooled around many different parts of Diego and while in LA I drove from one theme park to the next, mixing in a Dodger game and the Getty museum in between, while making my base at a family residence in Brentwood (near the Ralph's off of Wilshire for those that care). I hit up In-and-Out Burger. I hit up The Cat and the Fiddle. It was tons of fun and I got around flawlessly.

While the device had a number of different voices that could bark out lefts and rights, none of them satisfied me. I was in a car, a computer was giving me directions and that could mean only one thing: I was Michael Knight and the GPS was KITT. The closest that TomTom came was an Englishman's voice which while being sort of close was sincerely no cigar.

I used to spend lazy Saturday afternoons (like today) watching "Knight Rider" at 3 and "The A-Team" at 4 on On WWOR Channel 9. For a time they replace "Knight Rider" with "Airwolf" which sucked - a super charged talking car was one thing but a dudeflying around in his own attack helicoptor? Someone can only suspend disbelief so far!

Anyway, during the CA vacation, I talked endlessly about how they should have a "Knight Rider" voice option and sure enough, now Mio has made my dream come true. In case you were wondering, MythBusters proved that you really could drive up the ramp of a Knight Foundation big rig.

Two last closing points just for shits and giggles. One is that I spent many a Friday night at the Harvest Diner while in Junior and Senior High School performing the "Knight Rider" theme acapella in 4 parts with my friends. The way to perform it is you have one person go "DUH duh, DUH duh, DUH duh Duh duh, Duh duh." Another goes "Shwoo shwoo, shwoo shwoo." The third person goes "munnah munnah munnah munnah, munnah munnah munnah munnah, munnah munnah munnah munnah, munnah munnah munnah munnah" and the last then goes "Dum dah dah dum....dum dah dah dum....dum dah dah dum dum Dum!" Try it sometime. Its hard to do.

Second, below is a clip I found on YouTube of Regis introducing a Knight Rider themed act on America's Got Talent. Watch and enjoy!