The ‘Knight Rider’ car somehow got a speeding ticket even though museum owners swear it hasn’t moved in years |
“Give me every ounce of turbo boost you’ve got,” Michael Knight often demanded of his black Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, KITT.
If you didn’t grow up glued to television (like much of Gen X), this is a reference to the NBC hit show Knight Rider, starring David Hasselhoff as Knight. Its first incarnation ran from 1982 to 1986 and featured the crime-fighting Knight alongside his well-ahead-of-its-time talking car, KITT, short for Knight Industries Two Thousand. (In a later reboot of the series, KITT stood for Knight Industries Three Thousand.)
So imagine everyone’s surprise when KITT was allegedly spotted by traffic cameras driving 36 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone in Brooklyn on April 22. Or was it KITT? A car was seen zipping through a New York City intersection with a California plate that read KNIGHT.
Where is the real KITT?
The only issue? The speeding ticket was sent to the Volo Museum in Illinois, which has a replica of the KITT car on display. A spokesperson for the museum took to Facebook to share the mix-up:
“Well, this is a new one… we got this in the mail today. This is 100% legit. A traffic camera captured Knight Rider’s KITT speeding down the streets of New York City. The camera captured the novelty license plate (not a real plate…and also a California plate). Their official system ties the novelty plate to Volo Museum and we got a bill for $50! You can’t make this up! Our KITT hasn’t moved from our museum in years! Does anyone have Hasselhoff’s number? He owes us $50!!!!”
WABC-TV reports that the “summons, complete with a picture from a traffic camera, was sent to the Volo Museum in Volo, Illinois, where a black 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am replica of the TV show car is on display. It linked the KNIGHT license plate to the museum’s display vehicle. The museum has requested a hearing to dispute the ticket.”
Of the more than 20 KITT cars built for the series, only five remain. According to Road & Track:
“KITTs were made out of 1982, 1983, and 1984 Trans Ams, as well as base Firebird hardtops. Transmissions got swapped for Turbo 350 3-speeds, brake line locks were added, as well as some additional bracing, while the team used as much body filler as the panels would take.
The second-to-last KITT ever built started out as an ’84 base hardtop before taking up the role of a disposable stunt car. Yet after the show, NBC chose this example to be retrofitted with their sound stage dashboard, T-tops, and all the things children would expect to see once they put it on display at their theme park.”
“KITT’s been out traveling and breaking the law”
So why was Volo Museum in Illinois on the hook for a California-plated car? Theories and jokes abound. One Facebook user commented under the museum’s post, “You THINK that KITT hasn’t moved in years, but you forget KITT can drive anywhere he wants without Michael Knight. KITT’s been out traveling and breaking the law.”
And this case of mistaken identity isn’t unique. Another commenter added, “There’s a guy in southern Indiana who drives his KITT on a novelty plate while going through a toll bridge into Kentucky. Since I have a legitimate Indiana KNIGHT plate, they charge his tolls to my EZ-Pass.”
KITT conspiracy theories
On a Reddit thread titled, “Museum’s ‘Knight Rider’ replica car got a speeding ticket. It hasn’t gone anywhere in years,” commenters were quick with the nostalgic jokes. “I think there is an obvious answer. This car is a Brum, and every night it drives out into the big city on adventures,” one user wrote.
This Redditor shared the story of someone reportedly trying to evade speeding tickets: “There’s a story about an engineer who tried to be clever and got the plate ‘NULL’ in the hopes of avoiding tickets (if you’re not aware, NULL is used in some databases as a way of saying ‘no data’). He ended up with every ticket that didn’t have a plate number attached to it.”
Another user jokingly quoted KITT, writing, “I do not understand how you’ve managed to get us a speeding ticket without even being in motion, Michael.”
Will the real KITT please stand up?
As for the real KITTs? The remaining five cars used in the series have been spread among various museums and private owners. One famous car enthusiast, Jay Leno, got to take a ride in Joe Huth’s fabulous ride and even featured it on his show Jay Leno’s Garage.
It’s possible that if KITT were asked for comment about this whole affair, he might repeat one of his more memorable lines: “Really, some people are simply too much.”
While a bottle of bubbles might seem out of place in a hospital setting, you might be surprised to learn that, for thousands of children around the world born with cleft lip and palate, they can be a helpful tool in comprehensive cleft care. Lilia, who was born with cleft lip and palate in 2020, is one of the many patients who received this care.
As a toddler, Lilia underwent two surgeries to treat cleft lip and palate with Operation Smile’s surgical program in Puebla, Mexico. Because of Operation Smile’s comprehensive care, it wasn’t long before her personality transformed: Lilia went from a quiet and withdrawn toddler to an exuberant, curious explorer, babbling, expressing herself with a variety of sounds, and engaging with others like any child her age.
Lilia is now a healthy five-year-old, with the same cheerful attitude and boundless energy. Her progress is the result of care at every level, from surgery to speech therapy to ongoing support at home—but it’s also evidence that small, sustained interventions throughout it all can make a meaningful difference.
Cleft Conditions: A Global Problem
Since 1982, Operation Smile has provided cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries to more than 500,000 patients worldwide with the help of generous volunteers and donors. Cleft conditions are congenital conditions, meaning they are present at birth. With cleft lip and palate, the lip or the roof of the mouth do not form fully during fetal development. Cleft conditions put children at risk for malnutrition and poor weight gain, since their facial structure can make feeding challenging. But cleft conditions can have an enormous social impact as well: Common difficulties with speech can leave kids socially isolated and unable to meet the same developmental milestones as their peers.
Surgery is a vital step in treating cleft conditions, but it’s also just one part of a much larger solution. Organizations like Operation Smile emphasize the importance of multi-disciplinary teams that provide comprehensive, long-term care to patients across many years. This approach, which includes oral care, speech therapy, nutritional support, and psychosocial care, not only aids in physical recovery from surgery but also helps children develop the skills and confidence to eat easily, speak clearly, and engage in everyday life. This ensures that each patient receives the full range of support they need to thrive.
A Playful (and Powerful) Solution
Throughout a patient’s care, simple tools like bubbles can play a meaningful role from start to finish.
Immediately before surgery, children are often in a new and unfamiliar environment far from home, some of them experiencing a hospital setting for the first time. When care providers or loved ones blow bubbles, it’s a simple yet effective technique: Not only are the children soothed and distracted, the bubbles also help create a sense of joy and playfulness that eases their anxiety.
In speech therapy, bubbles can take on an even more important role. Blowing bubbles requires controlled airflow, as well as the ability to form a rounded “O” shape with the lips, which are skills that children with cleft conditions may struggle to develop. Practicing these skills with bubbles allows children to gently strengthen their facial muscles, improve breath control, and support the motor skills needed for speech development. Beyond that, blowing bubbles can help kids connect with their parents or providers in a way that’s playful, comforting, and accessible even for very young patients.
Finally, bubbles often follow patients with cleft conditions home in the “smile bags” that each patient receives when the surgical procedure is finished. Smile bags, which help continue speech therapy outside of the hospital setting, can contain language enrichment booklets, a mirror, oxygen tubing, and bubbles. While regular practice with motor skills can help with physical recovery, small acts of play help as well, giving kids space to simply enjoy themselves and join in on what peers are able to do.
Bubbles at Home and Beyond
Today, because of Operation Smile’s dedication to comprehensive cleft care, Lilia is now able to make friends and speak clearly, all things that could have been difficult or impossible before. Instead of a childhood defined by limitation, Lilia—and others around the world—can look forward to a childhood filled with joy, learning, discovery, friends, and new possibilities.
CTA: Lilia’s life was changed for the better with the care she received through Operation Smile. Find out how you can make an impact in other children’s lives by visiting operationsmile.org today.
On July 4, the United States of America will celebrate its 250th birthday. Called the “semiquincentennial,” the day will commemorate 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Of course, English was spoken by colonial Americans, and they had a distinctive accent that was unique to the newly formed country.
Surprisingly, they did not sound British. That’s because by the time of the Revolutionary War, two new generations had been born on American soil, according to JSTOR.
British English and American English began to develop separately. An English tourist commented on the colonial American dialect in 1770:
“The colonists are composed of adventurers, not only from every district of Great Britain and Ireland, but from almost every other European government…Is it not therefore reasonable to suppose that the English language must be greatly corrupted by such a strange admixture of various nations? The reverse is however true. The language of the immediate descendants of such promiscuous ancestry is perfectly uniform, and unadulterated; nor has it borrowed any provincial, or national accent from its British or foreign parentage.”
9 interesting Colonial American words
Many words from colonial America have faded from the modern-day lexicon. But a book from 1785 titled The Vulgar Tongue by author Francis Grose documented slang used during colonial times. The book was reprinted over the years, including an updated version titled 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
The word “vulgar” had a different meaning than it does today. “Vulgar” meant “common” or “ordinary,” according to Merriam-Webster.
Here are nine fascinating colonial-era words to add to your lexicon:
This is another word for water. According to Merriam-Webster, its origins are “after the biblical Adam; from its being provided by nature and thus presumably being the only drink in the Garden of Eden.” The term’s first known use was in 1643.
This is another word for drunk. According to the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, it means “the man is in his altitudes, i.e. he is drunk.”
According to the 1811 Dictionary of the........