IN: Marion Lee "Mickey" Thompson (December 7, 1928 - March 16, 1988) was an American auto racing builder and promoter. A hot rodder since his youth, Thompson increasingly pursued land speed records in his late 20s and early 30s. He achieved international fame in 1960 when he became the first American to break the 400 mph barrier, driving his Challenger 1 to a one-way top speed of 406.60 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats and surpassing John Cobb's one-way world record mark of 402 mph. Thompson then turned to racing, winning many track and dragster championships.

Thompson was born in Alhambra, California. In his early twenties, he worked as a pressman for the Los Angeles Times while pursuing a lifelong love of hot rodding. He later became involved in the new sport of drag racing. Tireless and innovative, he found success as a championship driver and instinctive automotive technician. Over the course of his career, Thompson set more speed and endurance records than any other man in automotive history. He is credited with designing and building the first slingshot dragster, in 1954, moving the seat behind the rear axle to improve traction when existing racing tires proved unable to handle the output of increasingly powerful custom engines. This car, the Panorama City Special, debuted at the first NHRA U.S. Nationals at the Great Bend Municipal Airport in Great Bend, Kansas in 1955. The car ultimately ran a best speed of 151.26 mph (243.43 km/h). A change so momentous would not happen again until Don Garlits introduced the rear-engined digger in 1971. Thompson also was noted for being the first manager of Lions Drag Strip in Wilmington, California, in 1955. Thompson collaborated with Fritz Voight on a 1958 twin-engined dragster. This car achieved a best speed of 294.117 mph (473.335 km/h). It provided lessons later applied to Challenger I. Determined to set a new land speed record, Thompson achieved fame when he drove his four-engined Challenger 1 at better than 400 mph (640 km/h) in 1960 at the Bonneville Salt Flats, becoming the first American to break that barrier.

Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?

OUT: Determined to set a new land speed record, Thompson achieved fame when he drove his four-engined Challenger 1 at better than 400 mph (640 km/h)

IN: Julius Caesar Watts Jr. (born November 18, 1957) is an American politician from Oklahoma who was a college football quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners and later played professionally in the Canadian Football League. Watts served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003 as a Republican, representing Oklahoma's 4th Congressional District. Watts was born and raised in Eufaula, Oklahoma, in a rural impoverished neighborhood. After being one of the first children to attend an integrated elementary school, he became a high school quarterback and gained a football scholarship to the University of Oklahoma.

Watts was born in Eufaula in McIntosh County, Oklahoma to J. C. "Buddy" Watts, Sr., and Helen Watts (d. 1992). His father was a Baptist minister, cattle trader, the first black police officer in Eufaula, and a member of the Eufaula City Council. His mother was a homemaker. Watts is the fifth of six children and grew up in a poor rural African-American neighborhood. He was one of two black children who integrated the Jefferson Davis Elementary School in Eufaula and the first black quarterback at Eufaula High School. While in high school, Watts fathered a daughter with a white woman, causing a scandal. Their families decided against an interracial marriage because of contemporary racial attitudes and Watts' family provided for the child until she could be adopted by Watts' uncle, Wade Watts, a Baptist minister, civil rights leader and head of the Oklahoma division of the NAACP. He graduated from high school in 1976 and attended the University of Oklahoma on a football scholarship. In 1977, Watts married Frankie Jones, an African-American woman with whom he had fathered a second daughter during high school. Watts began his college football career as the second-string quarterback and left college twice, but his father convinced him to return, and Watts became starting quarterback of the Oklahoma Sooners in 1979 and led them to consecutive Orange Bowl victories. Watts graduated from college in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism. Watts sought entrance in the National Football League through the New York Jets, but instead entered the Canadian Football League and played for the Ottawa Rough Riders, whom he helped reach the 1981 Grey Cup game. He stayed with the team from 1981 to 1985 and played a season for the Toronto Argonauts before retiring in 1986. Watts returned to Oklahoma and became a youth minister in Del City and was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1993. He is a teetotaler. Watts opened a highway construction company and later cited discontent with government regulation of his business as reason to become a candidate for public office. Watts' family was affiliated with the Democratic Party and his father and uncle Wade Watts were active in the party, but it did not help Watts when he ran for public office and he changed his party affiliation in 1989, months before his first statewide race. Watts later stated he had first considered changing parties when he covered the 1980 U.S. Senate campaign of Republican Don Nickles. Watts' father and uncle continued to strongly oppose the Republican party, but supported him. Watts won election to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission in November 1990 for a six-year term as the first African-American elected to statewide office in Oklahoma. He served as a member of the Commission from 1990 to 1995 and as its chairman from 1993 to 1995.

What is the name of his parent?

OUT: J. C. "Buddy" Watts, Sr., and Helen Watts

IN: Once is a 2007 Irish romantic musical drama film written and directed by John Carney. The film stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova as two struggling musicians in Dublin, Ireland. Hansard and Irglova had previously performed music as the Swell Season, and composed and performed the film's original songs. Once spent years in development with the Irish Film Board and was made for a budget of EUR112,000.

A rough cut of the film was previewed on 15 July 2006 at the Galway Film Fleadh, but the film was subsequently turned down by several prestigious European film festivals. However, once finished, it secured spots at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival on 20 January 2007 and the Dublin Film Festival in February 2007, and received the audience awards at both events. The film was first released on cinema in Ireland on 23 March 2007, followed by a limited release in the United States on 16 May 2007. After its second weekend in release in the United States and Canada, the film topped the 23 May 2007 indieWIRE box office chart with nearly $31,000 average per location. As of 28 March 2009, Once has grossed nearly $9.5 million in North America and over $20 million worldwide. After 2007's box office success and critical acclaim, it won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film. Steven Spielberg was quoted as saying "A little movie called Once gave me enough inspiration to last the rest of the year". When informed of Spielberg's comments, director John Carney told Sky News, "in the end of the day, he's just a guy with a beard". At the time of this interview, Carney himself was also wearing a beard. The song "Falling Slowly" won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song. The nomination's eligibility for the Oscar was initially questioned, as versions of the song had been released on The Cost and The Swell Season albums, but this was resolved before the voting for the award took place. The AMPAS music committee satisfied themselves that the song had indeed been written for the film and determined that, in the course of the film's protracted production, the composers had "played the song in some venues that were deemed inconsequential enough to not change the song's eligibility".

What place did it place on the box office charts?

OUT:
After its second weekend in release in the United States and Canada, the film topped the 23 May 2007 indieWIRE box office chart