I am not sure about the rest of you, but I have always found this proverb to be illogical. If I have a cake, why can’t I eat it? I know the meaning of this proverb but the sequence never makes sense to me. Isn’t the whole point of getting a cake is to eat it if it’s not a marshmallow test?

A recent binge watch on Netflix’s Manhunt: Unabomber, featuring Ted Kaczynsky and played by Paul Bettany, finally answered my forever confusion. I learned that there is another variant to this saying - “Eat your cake and have it too”. The mere switch between “eat” and “have” suddenly makes this proverb logical (at least to me). Nonetheless, the “have-eat” variant has been the more common one in the last few decades (why??).

This isn’t much of a post, but I do want to document new learnings here.

Have anyone questioned this proverb/ been confused about its logic before?

P.S. Manhunt is a great series by the way, I love how we can learn and relax at the same time.