When two people are walking side-by-side holding hands but briefly separate to go around an obstacle on opposite sites, they might say “bread and butter.” This phrase apparently stems from an old superstition that if the two people want to remain inseparable as bread and butter, they should invoke that kind of togetherness. There are several variations of this practice, including the worry that if they fail to utter the phrase, they’ll soon quarrel. Another version appears early in an episode of the old TV series The Twilight Zone, featuring a very young William Shatner. This is part of a complete episode.
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