Lead Paint, and Lead vs. Led

When Jack and Margaret were little, I did a lot of furniture refinishing. That's how some of you found me here on the blog. Because I like weathered, chippy furniture, I was particularly careful about lead paint and had all of my antiques tested by a professional.

Years later, I found a treasure, "The Dumpster Dive,"  an enormous green cabinet sitting by the side of the road. When I found it, the kids were way past the paint-licking stage, but I didn't want to take any chances, so I left it outside under the carport for years rather than bringing it inside.

When we moved into this house 3 years ago, I knew I had the perfect place for it in our family room, and because Margaret was a teen by that time, I didn't see a risk of having it inside. It looks terrific!

A few days ago, however, I was playing on the floor with Andrew, when I looked up and realized The Dumpster Dive could very well have lead paint on it. A quick test I ordered on-line confirmed that it does. I can either try to seal it with some kind of poly coating, or get rid of it. I feel like such a dummy for not even thinking about it until now, and I really hope Andrew hasn't suffered any ill effects from it! I'm just sitting here staring at it today, because it's huge and whatever I decide to do will have to be done with Tim's help when he gets home. Gah.

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All of this LEAD talk made me think of something else entirely.

Many people mix up the words LEAD and LED.

I see a lot of great writing every day, and this seems to be a common error, even in published books. I'm not judging-- I recently put the word asses in a blog post when I meant assess! So, what have I noticed? I commonly see phrases like, "I felt lead to write this article." This is incorrect. The person is not talking about a metal. It should be, "I felt led to write this article."

SO, how does one remember the difference? I don't know.

LEAD (as in lead paint, a bucket of lead) and LED (as in I led the dog down the hill yesterday, I felt led to share this with you) sound exactly the same.

LED is past-tense.

Of what?

The word LEAD (rhymes with seed)

LEAD (verb, what a LEADER does) sounds different. "I hope he or she will lead our nation with grace and dignity."

Not sure why I'm riffing on this today, but if it helps anyone catch it in his/her writing, that would be great.

Now if we could only eradicate: "Thank you for the support you have shown Kevin and I," and, "Please give it to Kevin or myself."