I always think of corn when I hear the words, “buttering-up.” So when one of my friends, surprised at what was to be a kindly gesture said to me, ‘What are you buttering me up for?”  My response was plain and simple, “I don’t butter.”  There was no pre-thought or ambiguity.  I never have a hidden agendas, so I gave him a straightforward answer with no salt, pepper or hot sauce. But the cliché made me think.  Buttering is the coating on the outside of something that makes what its covering more palatable.  I would probably be the last person to think of buttering someone up, but that label got…