Intent on offering his condolences and meeting Abdullah's successor in person, Obama led an exceptionally high-powered delegation to Riyadh that included former secretaries of state, past presidential candidates and senior military commanders.
The director's biggest ever hit, Vera Drake, enjoyed an exceptionally sustained run, eventually reaching £2.38m.
While standards of living are in general exceptionally high, Qatar is not yet paradise on earth: ask gays, who risk the death penalty, and foreign workers, who have been grossly abused.
Jonathan Portes, former chief economist at the Department for Work and Pensions and now director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said: "This was an exceptionally influential and widely cited paper, and George Osborne has repeatedly made clear that Ken Rogoff, who he has frequently met, has been very influential on his thinking".
Later, in the only bar in town, we stocked up on Patricia - the country's favourite beer and another great reason to visit - as Uruguay played Peru in an exceptionally violent friendly football match.
It was an "exceptionally strong performance" in the words of the Guardian film reviewer Peter Bradshaw.
"Mr Belgiorno-Nettis AM, and members of the Belgiorno-Nettis family, are outstanding Australians and exceptionally generous arts patrons.
"(They) now face exceptionally serious charges of hooliganism and piracy, accusations with no merit in either Russian or international law.
As well as locking in decades of some of the dirtiest fossil fuel production, extraction is an exceptionally carbon intensive process.
After seeing it a second time at Wyndham's and talking about it to exceptionally bright American students, I was forced to revise my opinion that Lydia Wilson's Kate was a quietly manipulative Lady Macbeth in the making.
Because if we do not act to stem the onslaught of this exceptionally dangerous terrorist movement, it will only grow stronger until it can target us on the streets of Britain".
