Dear Buttheads

[W Brewer]

Not wanting to be distracted from loftier thoughts about butts ... My
father & I used to compete for possession of the butt at meal times. That's
what the old man called the ends of a loaf of Wonderbread. There could
never have been any hint of impropriety; he was absolutely strict about not
using vulgar language in the family, although (or maybe because) he had
been a sailor in WWII. My impression is that butt has acquired a vulgar
cast to it in more recent years, which has then shunted aside all other
meanings (linguistic corollary to Gresham's law).

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