The National Post’s Peter Kenter bemoans the passing of the skilled road navigator, from an era when “a driver or a passenger who was particularly skilled at reading maps was an important asset on any road trip. Born with an eagle eye, the navigator could watch a highway disappear into a local street, roll around a giant traffic circle with a historic fountain in the middle of it, then re-emerge as a secondary route, just outside of town.” Google Maps and personal navigation devices are apparently spoiling the fun — except, perhaps, for that apparently tiny minority who ventured forth with no ability to read a map, and who managed to get lost with no help from an onboard computer. Sounds more than a bit apocryphal. Via GeoCarta.