Not least because, whilst I seem to spend more time speaking to special advisers than I do to my own family, Fiona Cunningham - Mrs May's special adviser - had never returned my calls in more than two years.
But the concert — an early highlight of the Blue Note Jazz Festival, which runs all month — was, objectively speaking, a special night.
"I spoke with Special Agent Bailey and Special Agent Griner earlier this morning.
I couldn't help noticing how much effort she was putting into making everyone happy -- Lewis and me, Sarah, her mother and Charlie, who was entirely undemanding but with his limited ability to speak, required special attention.
Ms. Shelley certainly reflects the views of many of us when she speaks of special interests controlling too much of the political process.
Vedanta Hinduism and Buddhism, even if they do not speak of special revelation, believe that their religious books and traditions have unique value for imparting a saving knowledge of the truth.
Obama speaks with special passion about the need to change America's image in the world — and not only by proving that it can elect a 46-year-old black man with roots in the Muslim world.
And as I speak, a special operations task force, led by the 82nd Airborne, is on the trail of terrorists and those who seek to undermine the free government of Afghanistan.
Down the centuries, the "Aeneid" has doubtless spoken with special poignancy to veteran commanders all over the world, who can read their own lives in an ancient poem composed when bows and arrows were the cutting edge in aerial warfare.
As I speak, a Special Operations task force, led by the 82nd Airborne, is on the trail of the terrorists and those who seek to undermine the free government of Afghanistan.
