Once in a great, great, great while I'll do something and my wife will laugh and say, “That was smart!”
I cooked up some tortellini and vegetables for dinner a couple of weekends ago, and asked my wife what she wanted on it. “A little butter,” she said. We store our butter in the refrigerator because we don't really use a whole lot of it, so it's pretty hard when it comes out. This makes it a little more difficult to cut than if the butter's at room temperature.
So I just got out a cheese slicer — this one in particular — and sliced off a few pats, maybe a couple of millimeters thick. Way easier than trying to mess with a butter knife or stirring the meal to melt and coat a couple of big pats.
This is also a good way to enjoy a little butter and control the portion carefully.