re: 'Special...'

I like Sagan's "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" formulation better.

And on a somewhat irrelevant note - Tolkien is great poetry? He's recitable, certainly, and his translations of 'The Pearl' or 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' are justly lauded; but his own poetry isn't too great.

('Sing hey! For the bath at close of day \ that washes the weary mud away...')