When the object is short (a pronoun or a small phrase), it usually goes between: "cut it short," "cut the trip short." But when the object is longer or has extra modifiers — like "his plans to spend time with his family after years of separation" — English tends to prefer keeping the short word ("short") right after the verb, and pushing the long, heavy noun phrase to the end of the sentence. This is a general tendency in English called "end weight": longer, more complex phrases naturally drift toward the end. So "cut short his plans to spend time with his family after years of separation" reads more smoothly than cramming that whole long phrase between "cut" and "short." One caveat: with a plain pronoun, only one order works — you can only say "cut it short," never "cut short it."

The phrase "try and do [something]" has become ubiquitous, but it doesn't make any sense. If you say "I'm going to try and eat this whole pie", you're saying you're going to try to eat the whole pie, and you're going to eat the whole pie. You're making two statements, joined by "and." You can skip the "Try and..." part.

It should nearly always be "try to...", instead of "try and..."

Sitting at a lunch restaurant where one can order either from self service kiosks, or from a person behind the counter. The counter has a handwritten sign "cash only at register".

Now, which meaning do you think that they intended? That if I want to pay in cash, I have to go to the counter? That if I walk up to the counter, I have to pay in cash?

(Yes, I could have asked, but by the time I spotted the sign, there wasn't anyone by the counter, and I had already successfully used the self service kiosk).