Why is a spineless coward called a “wimp”?
Someone who is weak and indecisive is often called a wimp, which is a short form of the word whimpering. The origin of wimp is a series of children’s books written in the 1890s by Evelyn Sharp, which featured characters called Wymps who loved playing practical jokes on others but who would cry when jokes were played on them. In the 1930s, a corpulent Popeye cartoon character named J. Wellington “Wimpy” kept the word alive.

Why are the names of those out of favour said to be kept in a “black book” or on a “blacklist”?
The “blacklisting” of artists by the American Congress during the 1950s was a shameful and well documented reign of terror, but blacklists and little black books are still quietly with us, especially among those who see enemies everywhere. It began with King Henry VIII of England, whose infamous black book recorded so-called abuses in monasteries to justify his purge against the Catholic Church.

How did Hollywood get its name?
“Hollywood” is a synonym for fantasy for some and decadence for others, yet the dream capital acquired its name from strangers on a train and became a gesture of love between a husband and a wife. In 1887, Mrs. Harvey Wilcox, whose husband owned the California land, overheard the woman next to her on a train refer to her summer home as “Hollywood.” Mrs. Wilcox liked the name Hollywood so much that her husband gave it to their California property.

What was the original meaning of “rock and roll”?
American slaves communicated secret codes past their white masters with music, and in 1951, when Alan Freed coined the phrase “rock and roll,” he was doing the same thing. In blues and jazz, the words mean “having great sex” (Good Rockin’ Tonight, 1948, and My Man Rocks Me With One Steady Roll, 1922). These coded lyrics were unfamiliar to the white broadcasters and gave Freed a way to cross the colour barrier and introduce white kids to rhythm and blues, where they soon learned how to Rock Around The Clock.