The Proof is in the Pudding
What a wonderful language we have. The book I'm reading at the moment is 'Mother Tongue' by Bill Bryson, which is an entertaining, but in-depth look at the origins of English.
It really does make me realise that's it's quite pointless wasting efforts on grammar and spelling, because we speak such a bastardised hodge-podge tongue anyway.
But nonetheless, I'd like to draw your attention to this article, citing numerous other references to “the proof is in the pudding” being a modernised contraction of the somewhat wordy, although admittedly more sensible saying, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”.
Oh, and the only reason you can't split infinitives is because some deranged monk centruries ago didn't think it was a good idea.
So boldy go, all of ye!
FLAME SHIELDS UP!