Car Talk

As if Barbara didn’t already find the handheld GPS I bought for the smart car annoying enough:

Now Homer Simpson is getting his turn. Starting today, TomTom, a GPS manufacturer with US headquarters in Concord, Mass., will allow users to add Homer’s voice to their navigation systems.

According to press materials provided by TomTom, “Homer’s hilarious, encouraging and sometimes unusual advice will ensure that drivers will not only reach their destination on time, but have a lot of fun along the way.” With voice work by Dan Castellaneta, who plays Homer on the “The Simpsons,” the download reportedly spits out advice like, “Take the third right. We might find an ice cream truck! Mmm … ice cream.”

We’ve had the car for just over 14 months now; the odometer turned over to 12,000 as I pulled it into the driveway this morning.