Sue, the episode focused on the friction between the Brits and some CIA agents. They were at odds over almost everything and the Brits thought they were being shut out of an investigation in their own country. The "slightly smaller than Oregon" description was just the final straw. Ironically, a female CIA agent and one of the British spooks ended up having an intense affair (which carried over to the actors' real lives).

Carta Pisana - it sounds like a great read, thanks for the reference. After reading a brief bio of the man that I found on google, I felt rather badly for mentioning the distortions in his maps, which were after all considerable improvements on what were previously available. Not to mention his field work almost got him executed for heresy.

BTilke - straw-counting, bed-hopping spies, sounds like a juicy series to be sure! Though I still wonder why small geographic size was seen aa a straw, i.e. an issue, - first, last, or any ordinal position - at all. Lots of small places have or had enormous strategic or political significance (Midway, Iwo Jima, Gibraltar, the Falklands, various parts of the Middle East, to name but a few.)