British diplomats and Anglo-American types in Washington have a near-superstitious prohibition on uttering the words 'Special Relationship' to describe relations between Britain and America, lest the specialness itself vanish like a phantom at cock-crow.
Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
anglo-americans, britain, diplomacy, foreign-relations, foreign-relations-of-the-us, superstition, uk-us-relations, united-states, washington