"People what".


That used to drive me nuts too. I believe the latter is more or less what it was (and the correct meaning), but it somehow mutated into something that makes no sense and sounds horrible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw

You can't have your cake and eat it. It makes perfect sense. You cannot both have a nice, whole cake and also be able to eat it. You can do one or the other, not both.

Its one of those weird grammar colloquialisms that people use. If you're pedantic you can point out to the person what's wrong with it, but we all know what they actually meant when they said it.

Kind of like when people say "ATM machine." They're actually saying "Automated Teller Machine machine" but who's going to correct them?

Grammar Nazis that's who.

This exactly. It sounds weird but it makes sense when you get right down to it.

It is grammatically incorrect in the Queen's English, but I always took it as Yiddish-inspired (or something like Yiddish), where its slightly ironic bent would seem appropriate. It might possibly have begun as a question. Imagining some guy from New York saying, "What, I could care less?" It makes more sense that way.

Yes you can. You have a cake. You say that you are going to eat it. You eat it. There ya go. You have your cake and then you eat it.

It's the other one you can't do. You can't eat it and then have it.


I think it's one of those things on how you perceive it. Kinda like the argument on if Gandalf's Balrog had wings. Man, those Tolkienites can go at it...

The phrase isn't "Can't have your cake then eat it too", it's "and". It's not a sequence of events. Having and eating are happening at the same time, so it doesn't really matter what order they come in the sentence.

Though, this means you can eat half of you cake and claim you ate it and still have it. I don't see any implication that you have to have the whole cake and eat the whole cake.

Keep it coming. This is brilliant.

I've always used "I couldn't care less", and honestly have never heard/seen "could care less" used outside of people on the internet.

anolyzing proverbs to that level will just lead to madness.

"The early bird gets the worm."

Why? Can late birds not find worms? What's defined as 'early' according to bird standards? Do birds even tell time?

Madness I tell you.

I could care less, but I'd have to go back to school and get my phd in not giving a [censored] which involves flunking my course in caring.

Since that's usually too long in casual conversation I just say

I could care less..

That's what makes it fun!

Besides, the early bird is an easy one. It's whichever one gets there first, because any that are later can't get the worm (it's the worm, not a worm!)

Nobody linked https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc?

I never use "I could care less". My thing is "I don't give a [censored]".

This. Although I would say that it is easiest to imagine that you have a beautifully decorated cake, wedding cake style. It is a wonderful, gorgeous decoration, and you would love to keep it. However, you would also like to eat it. You cannot do both. I would say that, in this case, eating half the cake would do enough damage to ruin your lovely decoration, so you can't eat half of it either!

You know, I coul care less about how other people use slang, but I already care so little that it just isn't worth the effort.





(That's the secret meaning, by the way. Old Andy gets it.)

I always take it as a phrase that doesn't make sense but just means you can't have the best of both of what you want.

That's what it means, yes. But if you try and take it literally it doesn't make much sense. Unless there's only one worm in the ground at any one time, the birds will always get a worm no matter if they're 'early' or 'late'. Being early or late doesn't matter to a bird.

Anyway, the point is, taking proverbs literally just leads to silliness. Take it for what its worth and move on.

Maybe, but we probably couldn't care less about which way we say it.

Yea, it should be 'I couldn't care less', implying that you're at your minimum level of giving any damns.

Although a more prevalent problem is the use of 'literally'. People are literally using literally when they're not intending to be literal

Some habits have stuck with me though, like the use of 'alot'. At least I don't type that in essays though.

I usually eat only a piece of the cake, and save the rest for later. So yes, i have it and i eat it too

Or "I don't give a flying [censored]"

i think it means you cant have "it" and eat "it" too, it being the cake, not a piece or portion, . Thus there is no half of something considered whole.

Think of it like this, you have it, the cake, as a whole, in order to eat it, you would consume it all, and no longer have it. If you cut a piece and eat that piece, the piece is no longer part of "it" as the piece is gone, and while you did eat the piece, it no longer belongs to the cake.

Theiyr're

, but yea, when I read the topic title I thought it should be "I couldn't care less." There are the occasional habits as well, when I'm typing fast I sometimes type "alot", Or to instead of too, of instead of off. But they do occasionally get changed. Although some people have screamed at me that I'm using "Too" wrong although to my knowledge Too means also or excessively.

A person does get bombarded by different ways of writing things by these grammar nazi's each of them telling you that the other way is wrong. I sure have! "No you do it this way!" So I write it that way, then "No that way is wrong! It's this way!" So I do it that way, and the cycle continues.

I just stopped carrying.

It means you can't both have your cake and have eaten it. You can have your cake THEN eat it, but if you eat it, and you don't have it anymore.

The lack of Word Crimes in this thread has left me appalled. What is wrong with today's generation is that they don't follow the great philosopher, poet A.M. Yankovic.