I for one would like to find out. I want to know exactly who first said it (whatever it was) and when. And I'll say it again: I would prefer that there be one Authority somewhere who would say definitively what IS and IS NOT right, re: spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. No "alternative spellings" for me, tyvm. [nod to Max, for the tyvm]
I'm afraid this is never going to happen. Language is not like a coin collection, where every element exists somewhere in a static and genuine form, and all we have to do is find and preserve each to be done with it. Language is like every other element of the living world. It does not succeed without diversity wrought by innumerable changes. Every individual uses language to meet his or her own needs, not to comply with a set of rules. Poets, scientists, rhetoricians, gang members, religious organizations - all of us - do this ("tyvm" is a perfect example,) and the modifications so generated may or may not find their way into general use.
