Let's take a moment to dwell on the legend of the Buttcheeks Man, a.k.a. Butt Man, the Butt Man, the Butt Breather, and the Butt Cheek Man. No one can tell you exactly where the story comes from. It may be a case of mistaken identity, or maybe it was a misunderstanding. But it is true that in the '90s and early 2000s, a mysterious man started living on the streets of Los Angeles, wandering the city, asking for donations and giving them to strangers. He would give away over $20,000 per year in just such transactions, although his most famous act of giving was actually the transfer of money from one homeless man to another, one time for the price of an all-beef hot dog, the next for five hours of car services, and the next for a pack of cigarettes. He would also occasionally hand over a wad of cash, or a cell phone, or other random items to panhandlers, or give them drugs, or make them a phone call to arrange a donation. On any given night, it was possible that he would have several people coming to him for something, like a couple of beers or a pack of cigarettes, or maybe even for a ride. He never asked for anything in return, although, of course, he could have gotten anything he wanted by asking. But he would never ask.

He would often be seen with a backpack, maybe a shopping cart, or a bag of clothes, which he would leave on the sidewalk next to him as he moved on. He was seen with a blue baseball cap, a red sweatshirt, a brown winter jacket, and a pair of black pants, and an old pair of shoes. His only name was the Buttcheeks Man, a moniker that appeared nowhere on his body. Some witnesses would say they had seen a tattoo or a tattoo-like marking somewhere on his body, although no one could say exactly where. It was reported that he was in his mid-thirties, a thin guy, maybe just under five feet five inches. He was seen in the daytime in the city and in the evening in Venice. It is true that on the night of December 21, 2004, he was discovered at a Venice Beach camp, but he was there without ever moving from his backpack.

There were rumors of a second Buttcheeks Man who would appear on another part of the West Coast in the mid-2000s, also wearing a blue baseball cap, a red sweatshirt, a brown jacket, and a pair of black pants. No one ever saw the other man, and, like his companion, his body appeared to have a tattoo or tattoo-like marking that was never seen by anyone, but he too wore a gray backpack.

And so it was that a legend was born, and then it was forgotten.

The Buttcheeks Man was an intriguing personage and a mystery. It's obvious that people wanted to know who he was, what he did, and where he lived. Some wanted to know what his name was, and what his motivation was, as well as the reason behind his mysterious generosity, which, after all, was more than just a simple act of altruism. It was, however, a mystery. No one could provide an explanation, though perhaps we can glean a clue or two. There was a story of a Buttcheeks Man in San Francisco who would make out with his date by spitting on her. It's true that he asked for a beer, and spit on the bartender, who gave him the beer without any problems. It's possible that he did the same thing to the girl, although there is no direct evidence that it happened.

But a more general theory is that the whole thing was a prank, a joke of some kind, a form of street theater. After all, for all the mystery, nothing he did could be considered illegal. He was in his late thirties, but he was no young man. He might have been a veteran of the street. He might have taken up that particular lifestyle because it was preferable to his original life, or maybe he did it because it was the only thing he could do to survive.

Maybe he had gotten addicted to some hard drugs, and that was why he needed to be homeless. He would have needed cash, and he might have been desperate. It's possible that someone offered him a bag of heroin, or a bag of cocaine, and he accepted it.