IN: "Ode to Billie Joe" is a 1967 song written and recorded by Bobbie Gentry, a singer-songwriter from Chickasaw County, Mississippi. The single, released in late July, was a number-one hit in the United States, and became a big international seller. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 3 song for 1967 (the other two were #2 "The Letter" by the Box Tops and #1 "To Sir With Love" by Lulu). The song is ranked #412 on Rolling Stone's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and at #144 in Pitchfork's 200 Best Songs of the 1960s.

The song is a first-person narrative to "sparse"  musical accompaniment. It reveals a tale, mostly in the form of brief dialog extracts by the narrator's family at dinnertime, on the day that a local boy - and apparently friend of the narrator - jumped to his death from a nearby bridge. Throughout the song, the suicide and other tragedies are contrasted against the banality of everyday routine and polite conversation. The final verse conveys the quick passage of events and other deaths in a year's time.  The song begins with the narrator, her brother and her father returning, after agricultural morning chores, to the family house for dinner (on June 3). After cautioning them about tracking in dirt, "Mama" says that she "got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge" that "Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge".  At the dinner table, the narrator's father appears unmoved and almost dismissive; he comments that "Billie Joe never had a lick o' [meaning, any] sense", and asks for the biscuits to be passed to him, and comments that he has "five more acres in the lower forty" to plow. Her brother seems somewhat taken aback ("I saw him at the sawmill yesterday ... And now you tell me Billie Joe has jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"), but follows the comment by asking for a second slice of pie. He recalls a prank that he and his friends played on the narrator, and that he saw her and Billie Joe talking after church a few days previously.  The only person who seems genuinely upset is the narrator. Her mother - who eventually notices the narrator's abrupt and complete change of mood at the news - seems unable to realize she is affected by the news ("Child, what's happened to your appetite? I been cookin' all mornin' and you haven't touched a single bite"). She shares other news instead, that a local preacher visited earlier in the day, and almost as an aside, that the preacher had mentioned seeing Billie Joe and a girl who looked very much like the narrator herself "throwin' somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge" - the object they were throwing is not identified. But again, the narrator's mother fails to connect this in any way to her daughter's emotional distress.  In the song's final verse, a year has passed, and brought more harm and pain. The narrator's brother has married Becky Thompson, but they have moved away to another town ("bought a store in Tupelo"). Their father died from an unspecified viral infection, and their mother has been depressed and despondent, and "doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything". The narrator is also affected by the malaise; the main change she describes in her own life, is that she often visits Choctaw Ridge and picks flowers there to drop from the Tallahatchie Bridge into the murky waters of the river where Billy Joe jumped to his death.

Was anyone actually upset?

OUT: The only person who seems genuinely upset is the narrator. Her mother - who eventually notices the narrator's abrupt and complete change of mood at the news -


IN: Fangio's grandfather, Giuseppe Fangio, emigrated to Buenos Aires from Italy in 1887. Giuseppe managed to buy his own farm near Balcarce within three years by making charcoal from tree branches. His father, Loreto, emigrated to Argentina from the small central Italian town of Castiglione Messer Marino in the Chieti province of the Abruzzo region. His mother, Herminia Deramo, was from Tornareccio, slightly to the north.

After finishing his military service, Fangio opened his own garage and raced in local events. He began his racing career in Argentina in 1934, driving a 1929 Ford Model A, which he had rebuilt. These local events were unlike anything in Europe or North America, they were long-distance races held on mostly dirt roads up and down South America. During his time racing in Argentina, he drove Chevrolet cars and was Argentine National Champion in 1940 and 1941. One particular race, which he won in 1940, the Gran Premio del Norte, was almost 10,000 km long. This race started in Buenos Aires and ran up through the Andes to Lima, Peru and back again, taking nearly two weeks with stages held each day. Following many successes driving mainly modified American stock cars; he was funded by the Argentine Automobile Club and the Argentine government and sent to Europe in 1948 to continue his career.  In the Tourism Highway category, Fangio participated in his first race between 18 and 30 October 1938 as the co-pilot of Luis Finocchietti. Despite not winning the Argentine Road Grand Prix, Fangio drove most of the way and qualified in seventh place. In November of that year, he entered the "400 km of Tres Arroyos ", but it was suspended due to a fatal accident.  In 1939, the circuit was in Forest, which conformed well with his last involvement with a Ford V8. With Hector Tieri as his partner, they led Turismo Carretera that year with a Chevrolet, competing for the Argentine Grand Prix. Suspended by a strong rain and resumed in Cordoba, he managed their first stage victory, winning the fourth stage from Catamarca to San Juan. In October, after 9500 km of competition in Argentina, Bolivia and Peru, he won his first race in Turismo Carretera, the Grand Prix International North. He became the first TC Argentine Champion to have driven a Chevrolet.  In 1941, he beat Oscar Galvez in the Grand Prix Getulio Vargas in Brazil. For the second time, Fangio was crowned champion of Argentine TC. In 1942, he ended South Grand Prix in tenth place in accordance with the general classification. In April he won the race "Mar y Sierras" and had to suspend the mechanical activity due to the start of World War II.  In 1946, after a brief period of inactivity, Fangio returned to racing with two races in Moron and Tandil driving a Ford T. In February 1947, Fangio competed at National Mechanics (MN) in the circuit Retirement, and on 1 March, he started the race for Rosario City Award. Subsequently, Fangio triumphed in the circuit 'Double Back Window' Race.

did he travel?

OUT:
In October, after 9500 km of competition in Argentina, Bolivia and Peru, he won his first race in Turismo Carretera, the Grand Prix International North.