A short spelling lesson.

I bring this up because I've seen it in many places recently. I've even seen professional writers use it. And their professional editors missed it. It's an epidemic with no apparent cure.

Here's what I'm talking about: the past tense of the verb lead (as in you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink) is led. But I keep seeing it written lead, as in the stuff bullets used to be made of. (In case you're wondering, lead is being phased out because we don't want to poison the wildlife; we just want to shoot it. Makes perfect sense.) Here are two examples I saw in the last five  minutes:

So-and-so lead with his helmet. (describing how a football player is not supposed to tackle)

blah blah blah, which lead to blah blah blah. (from the blog of a professional writer)

In each case the word should be led. Today I lead; yesterday I led.

Go forth and write correctly.

Be thankful ~