Uncensored John Simon

http://uncensoredsimon.blogspot.com/

Now take an even more common and equally egregious tautology of which television is especially culpable, though you get it all over the place, spoken and written by perhaps even you (Et tu Brute): "cannot help but." Thus "I cannot help but think otherwise" etc. or "we cannot help but commit the sins of our fathers." Correct would be "I cannot but think" or "I cannot help thinking," but not both. Yet even in the most prestigious publications you will find this solecism pullulating.

Now you may say, "What does it matter? People will understand you either way." But it does matter. People will understand it if after a meal of beans you should fart in public—perhaps even overlook it—but that does not make it all right. Correct speech, like correct dress, may be a dying nicety, but people of taste will cling to it and reward you with their esteem if you practice it. Correct speech is an integral part of correct behavior.

_- Steve