J. M. G. Le Clézio Clézio used his Nobel prize acceptance lecture to attack the subject of information poverty. The title of his lecture was "Dans la forêt des paradoxes" ("In the forest of paradoxes"), a title he attributed to Stig Dagerman. Gao Xingjian, a Chinese émigré, was the previous French citizen to receive the prize (for 2000); Le Clézio was the first French-language writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature since Claude Simon for 1985, and the fourteenth since Sully Prudhomme, laureate of the first prize of 1901. He is a staunch defender of Mama Rosa, director of a Mexican shelter raided by
Don Prudhomme "The Snake" in high school. He was the first Funny Car driver to exceed . After trouble getting the "vaunted" Gilmore Engineering-chassied "Donovan Engineering Special" dragster sorted out, Tom McEwen quit, and was replaced by Prudhomme, then owner-driver in the B&M Tork Master-sponsored car. In 1965, Prudhomme faced Hot Wheels teammate McEwen at the Hot Rod Magazine Championship Drag Races, held at Riverside, "one of the most significant drag racing events" of that era; ultimately, Top Fuel Eliminator (TFE) went to Jim Warren. He raced a Shelby Super Snake in the 1968 and 1969 seasons, powered by a Ford engine