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Green light go is a term that originated in the late 1800s for the signal used by railroads to indicate that a train could proceed and later cars. It is also a general slang term that give permission for one to proceed with whatever they are doing.

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“Howdy! Be a Chuloo” was a marketing campaign for Colgan’s Taffy Tolu. Known as “The Original Chewing Gum,” Taffy Tolu was the first flavored chewing gum created in the 1860s by pharmacist John Colgan. Pinback buttons such as these were distributed in drugstores to promote the Colgan product. The slogan “Be a Chuloo (For Chewing Gum”) was patented by The Meek Company in 1907.

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"I'd lather die than miss the soaps" is a play on "I'd rather die than miss the show" that expresses how a soap opera television fan doesn't want to miss these programs. A bar of soap lathers with suds from water and is used to clean a person's body in the shower or the bathtub and this is where "lather" is used instead of "rather" in the phrase. A "soap" opera is technically called a operatic drama which is a series of radio or television episodes about overly sentimental people in melodramatic situations.  Many of the early radio programs were sponsored by soap manufacturers, hence the term "soap opera." Prior to the digital age, many shows including soap operas had so many daily episodes that they were not shown in reruns. If you missed one day of a soap opera's daily program, it was difficult to find information about what was missed.

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I’m Looking for a Sweetheart (and I Think You’ll Do) is the title of a 1909 song recorded by Ada Jones and Bill Murray. The mischievous romantic nature of the song is reflected in the slogan, particularly when contextualized as one of a series of suggestive novelty buttons issued by Johnson Smith & Company in the 1930s. The buttons in this series all share the visual features of blue and white alternating rectangles around the perimeter of the button with red sans serif font boasting flirty expressions. The frivolous and fun nature of these buttons and other novelty goods produced in the 1920s and 1930s was purported by Johnson Smith & Co. as “provid[ing] an escape for people wracked with economic struggle brought on by WWI and the Great Depression” (Johnson Smith Company, LinkedIn).

Johnson Smith & Co. originated in 1914 as a novelty item mail-order company based in Chicago, IL. The company later moved to Racine, WI, Detroit, MI, and ultimately, Bradenton, FL. Though their website is now defunct, it was active as of 2012. Johnson Smith & Co. often advertised in print media aimed at young adults such as Action Comics, Boys’ Life, Popular Mechanics, and MAD. These ads and larger catalogs were influential in the development of American graphic design.

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"Mello" derives from the word "mellow" which means to soften with age. The term was used frequently in the 1960s as a way to encourage oneself and others to be in a calm and receptive state, to "keep it mellow." This "mello" appears to be a play on the popular greeting, "hello."

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Nightclubbing has been a popular pastime since the 19th century. However, it did not reach the United States until the 1920s. What set nightclubbing apart from earlier nightlife activities prior to the 1920s is that women were now allowed to take part. The first night clubs popped up in New York City. During Prohibition, nightclubs remained opened as dancing venues. Some of the first popular clubs included The Cotton Club (1923-1936) and Copacabana (1940-1992), both in New York.

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A curse word used to express disbelief in an event or piece of information presented as true when it is false. Literally, the feces from the animal, a bull. The first attested use of the term bullshit appears in a piece written by T.S. Eliot entitled "The Triumph of Bullshit." It's a comic ballad in which Eliot preemptively criticizes himself and his works before his critics could. The term bullshit only appears in the title.