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As alluded too above, some linguists have insisted that “Have…Eat” iteration is not correct due to the actual plausibility of the statement. You, in fact, can have your cake and then eat it. That isn’t impossible, therefore it negates what the actual idiom stands for, not unlike the common error of saying, “I could care less!” when one means “could not care less.”
On the other hand, eating it and, then, having it is impossible and absurd, hence why this statement is in fact the correct turn of phrase.
Despite the “Have…Eat” version being more prevalent in today’s society, one amateur linguist in particular insisted on using the “correct” version in a manifesto he wrote. That person was Theodore J. Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber.
“The Unabomber” had been mailing and placing homemade bombs aimed at maiming people who were involved with modern technologies since 1978. The FBI had been trying to track him down for decades. Finally, in April 1995, the FBI had a break in the case when the Unabomber’s manifesto entitled “Industrial Society and its Future” was sent to major publications across the country and was, under the threat of violence, demanded to be released to the public. If it was with conditions met, he promised to stop his bombings.
In September 1995, it was published in the New York Times and Washington Post. In it, he derides that the industrial revolution has been a “disaster for the human race” and calls for a “revolution against technology.”
Additionally, he provides this phrase: “As for the negative consequences of eliminating industrial society — well, you can’t eat your cake and have it too — to gain one thing you have to sacrifice another.”
Upon seeing this phrasing in the morning paper, David Kaczynski finally decided his wife might be right and his brother really might be the Unabomber. For their whole lives, their mother would correct them and insist that this was the correct usage of the phrase. This and other similarities in Ted’s writing style and his political beliefs, convinced David he needed to speak up.
David passed this information, along with old family letters demonstrating Ted’s writing style, to the FBI who employed forensic linguistics to compare the manifesto to other pieces of writing Ted had given to his family. This information, and other stylistic evidence, convinced a judge to submit a search warrant.
On April 3, 1996, Ted Kaczynski was arrested by the FBI at his cabin deep in the woods of Montana. His own demand to be heard did him in. As the Unabomber would say, you can’t eat your cake and have it too.
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/01/cake-eat/ ------
“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus
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