>>>>>It's probably historical: some languages got used to hidden sense and implicit talk. I am not a linguistic expert, so I could be wrong, but it might be that Russian language is the most double-speak phenomenon in this area.
>>>>
>>>>What about (ouch, forgot the exact name) of the language in "1984"? I read it recently in English.
>>>
>>>Isn't it "Newspeak"?
>>>
>>>That expression is hijacked today "Oh, downsizing is newspeak for 'laying people off'"
>>>
>>>Just as in "1984" they had "Minitrue" (the Ministry of Truth - in effect lies) nowadays we have the MetPol for London's Metropolitan Police.
>>>
>>>Incidentally, recently on a BBC telethon day, the woman who's presented the Big Brother reality show in UK since its start was asked, in a quiz, "Who is the leader of Oceania?" ... and she had no idea.
>>>
>>>Similarly many people bandy about the expression "Catch-22" without ever having read the book or really knowing what one is. That annoys me.
>>
>>I was watching a dvd of one of the old episodes of a show we had here (don't know if it was ever in England), called "Remington Steele", and in the episode, he was using a fake identity, and introduced himself to one person as "Milo Minderbinder".
>
>I liked that show. It was the first most people saw of Pierce Brosnan, I think. His sidekick, played by Stephanie Zimbalist, was also a likeable character (in more ways than one).

Yeah. It was a fun show. Brosnan's character was an old movie buff and used to slip in little odd bits from time to time. One show he used the pseudonym "John Robie" when he was pretending to be a thief.

Often the allusion was never explained - either you got it or not. Like the Milo Minderbinder thing; it was never explained. I've always wondered how many I might have missed.