What do you call the first and last slices of a loaf of bread?

[angus]

I voted for end, although I usually say the "end piece."  I also voted for heel because I've heard that one as well. 

I rather enjoy them, actually, and I save the first one till I get to the other end of the package and use them together.  Toasted, of course, with tuna, copious mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, and sliced fresh jalapeño from my garden.  For grilled cheese, the variety with no mayonnaise or other condiment, to be served with tomato soup, I turn them inside out and use the outer side hold together the melted cheese.

[angus]

I've been inspired by this thread to learn more.  A few (unconfirmed) tidbits:

Apparently if a woman prefers the endpiece when she's pregnant then she's going to have a boy.

Among the German-speaking (PennsylfaniDeutsch) residents of Lancaster County, it is called Schpitzel.

Centuries ago, when a new loaf was taken from the oven, bread was often sliced lengthwise (perpendicular to the way it is commonly sliced now), and the first slice from the top of the loaf was given to the person of the highest social standing.  Hence the term 'upper crust' to describe such a person.

Grunchsteak, humpfermumber, krunka, and bottom are also words used to denote the endpiece.

M-W.com defines heel as "one of the crusty ends of a loaf of bread" which would imply that "crusty end" is another expression for this part of the loaf.

Otto Frederick Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa invented the first loaf-at-a-time bread-slicing machine in 1912.  He called them, quite simply, "crusts."  

In 1943, the federal government imposed a ban on sliced bread.  The ban was imposed on January 18 as a wartime conservation matter.  Only bakeries complied, but some other distributors did not.   New York Area Supervisor of the Food Distribution Administration John Conaboy wrote in February that "to protect the cooperating bakeries against the unfair competition of those who continue to slice their own bread, we are prepared to take stern measures if necessary."  After many complaints, the ban was rescinded on March 8 of the same year.  No word yet on how Conaboy might have referred to the endpieces.

We actually do feed ours to the waterfowl sometimes, although I prefer to give them Graham Crackers when we have those.  The local geese, swan, and ducks seem to enjoy them, but as far as I can tell they use the same word to describe both Graham Crackers and endpieces.  

I should probably get back to work now...

[angus]

Like all non heathen speakers of English, I call it a crust. Because it is literally part of the crust. Anyone who finds this at all confusing runs a serious risk of drowning when they have a bath.

piss off.  that's ambiguous, at best.  That doesn't distinguish the end pieces from all the other pieces, each of which has a bit of crust.  If you're going to be a snob, at least try to come off as a bit more sophisticated than the rest of us.

[angus]

piss off.  that's ambiguous, at best.  That doesn't distinguish the end pieces from all the other pieces, each of which has a bit of crust.  If you're going to be a snob, at least try to come off as a bit more sophisticated than the rest of us.

This isn't snobbery but The Truth. Cut the end of a loaf and the resulting slice is mostly crust. This makes it different from other slices.

It may perhaps depend upon the loaf.  I have noticed that some brands offer only a sliver on the end piece.  (Forgive my insistence upon the term, but it comes from my earliest recollections, and it really does seem to fit.)  Those breads seem to have instructed their bread-slicing-machine engineers to construct a device that simply removes crust from the outer edges--but not the other parts of the loaf, which I suppose informs my contentiousness--and leaves 24 equally-formed slices.  I generally purchase Arnold's Country Wheat Bread, not only because it tastes delicious, but also because the endpieces are not significantly less massive than the other pieces, which would suggest that the endpieces are decidedly not "mostly crust."  The crust, as I understand a crust to be defined, consists of at most a couple of millimeters of material on the outside of the loaf.  If the bread slices are about a centimeter in thickness, then the endpieces are mostly middle, in fact the overwhelming majority of the endpieces are middle, just like all the other pieces.  The simply have the advantage of also having an extra layer of crust. 

To call the endpieces crust would be tantamount to calling the continent of Australia "coastline."  Sure, the ratio of coastline to interior is greater for Australia than for any other continent, but it is disingenuous and misleading to call the entire continent a coastline simply because it has a greater ratio of coastline to interior than any other continent.  I, for one, like coastline.  Coastline is delicious.  If a piece of continent has a greater coastline-to-interior ratio than the average continent, then it is, to me, a savory and delicious continent.  It should be drenched in hummus and minced garlic and toasted and eaten with abandon.  It is a rare treat.  It is not coastline in its entirety, but because the coastline of such a morsel is never far away from the tongue, it is as gold nuggets among stones.  It is a favored slice of geography. 

[angus]

Are you going to tell me that those plastic things on the ends of shoelaces also have names?

I think most people call it an aglet.  I call it a sleeve.  I've also heard them called tips, studs, and acuculae.  We should have a poll.