Also, it never occurred to me that his accent was supposed to be English until various Americans informed me of the fact.

I meant to ask the B.H. about that and forgot--he was too busy complaining about the wine. I'm a terrible judge of accents, so his never sounded that bad to me: not that it sounded like anyone's real accent, but I didn't think it was supposed to be his real accent either. It just sounds "learned" to my ear. I've enoucntered people with that kind of accent in the past; usually, they're trying to hide something.

Watch me ignore the Romanov connection. Seriously. May it never be mentioned again.