@avclub-a1967e6de4ca99fb2635d94b99453928:disqus There were, but generally the existence of embassies has at least as much to do with more general day-to-day stuff than the occasional big treaty and/or summit.  SALT was conducted by special negotiators, not ambassadors.

I think S Directorate might be responsible for all deep cover sleeper agents everywhere, or even all illegal agents.

I'm not so sure the people at the top of the Soviet system really did believe in Marxism-Leninism as much as all that, but your broader point stands.

It's tempting to look back in history and assume that the Cold War was a period of totally unrelenting hostility between the USSR and the USA, but that's not the case.  Soviet and American diplomats didn't just sit around screaming at one another about how much the other side sucked.  Both sides claimed to want…

He's a Welsh?!?!?!?!

Wait, somebody doesn't like universally acclaimed and respected author Ayn Rand?  I find this very hard to believe.

"It didn't really feel like the movie had anything to say about racism, except "people were racist back then, racism is bad""

The action sequence in the lifts was pretty awesome as far as action sequences go, but it was incredibly hard to give even a minimal shit about any of the characters, and the setting made no sense on almost any concievable level.

Unless you're also a girl.

Your mom is NBC's target audience.*

Are you by any chance a middle aged legal secretary who thinks English accents are fantastic?

Stephen Fry is an actor who specialises in playing erudite and intelligent people.

What dark and misguided ideology motivated you, sixty-first liker?

He wasn't even that good in Archer

Hot Fuzz?

I didn't find them that funny, actually.

Or whatever.  The normal number.

Well spotted on Thomas Elphinstone etc etc.  The Archer series are full of in-jokes about spy fiction.  I've only spotted a couple.  My favourite was Archer calling Cyril "Chokey Carmichael".

Grade inflation would be if they were constantly inventing new grades above A+.  What we're seeing is grade contraction, e.g. the clustering of grades into the top of the scale.

Grade inflation would be if they were constantly inventing new grades above A+.  What we're seeing is grade contraction, e.g. the clustering of grades into the top of the scale.