Bizarrely, it featured two titles from a Horace Silver session, 'Message From Kenya' and 'Nothing But The Soul', which were features for Art Blakey's drumming: on the first title he duetted with percussionist Sabu Martinez, but the other was all Blakey (a nice tribute, though, to the drummer's importance in the Blue Note hierarchy).

NPR: 'Blue Note Records, The Biography'

During a press session Wednesday, Heins kept his message simple.

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Palestinian representative Nasser Al-Kidwa said Wednesday that an emergency session is needed to send a strong message to Israel from the international community.

CNN: U.N. leader surveys interest in possible special session

In a video message to the High-level session, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called upon the scientific community to help make sense of the complex and interconnected challenges --including climate change, the financial crisis and food, water and energy insecurity -- that threaten human well-being and civilization as we know it.

UNESCO: Irina Bokova: we must harness the power of science to empower people | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

In a video message, shown during the opening of the 39th session, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of the importance of heritage for our understanding of cultures.

UNESCO: 39th Session of the World Heritage Committee

The underlying message from Wednesday night's "beef and asparagus" session was that the majority of the unions know that they will have to work with the government on this one.

BBC: By Nick Assinder

Indeed, Kennedy's speech was called a "Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs" and was delivered to a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961.

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Cuomo and Senate Republicans first extended the tax in a special session in December 2011 after promising in the 2010 elections to reject the measure as a job killer and a bad message for New York to send to employers.

WSJ: Tentative NY budget deal touches rich and poor