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That sentence in a newspaper article stirred Sara Solomon of Roscoe, Pennsylvania, to write, "Isn't 'pleaded' the past tense of 'plead'? Is there such a word as 'pled'?"

I can't plead ignorance. "Pled" is, indeed, a word. Whether you should use it is another question. The verb "plead," like the similar verbs "bleed," "feed" and "speed," has a past tense form with a short vowel: "pled."

But, unlike "bled," "fed" and "sped," "pled" has always wrestled for dominance with a rival form: "pleaded." Eventually, "pleaded" gained the upper hand in British English, and "pled" was relegated to linguistic Siberia: Scotland.

Never ones to accept English rule or rules, those wily Scots hatched a plan. These kilt-clad highlanders immigrated to the United States, where they promulgated plaid, "pled" and Presbyterianism. Soon, "pled" was flourishing in American English as an alternative to the proper British "pleaded."

Perhaps due to these smuggle-y origins, many usage commentators smugly dismiss "pled." The Associated Press Stylebook, for instance, takes the "better dead than 'pled'" approach, decreeing sharply, "Do not use the colloquial past tense form 'pled.'"

Language expert Bryan Garner takes a more gentle approach, describing "pled" as a word that is "commonplace even among many well-educated people but is still avoided in careful usage."

By contrast, other authorities enter a plea of "not guilty" for "pled." Chiding "backward-looking" commentators, Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage proclaims "pled" to be "fully respectable."

Surprisingly, the late language columnist James J. Kilpatrick, who was usually celibate when it came to colloquialisms, suggested using the rhythm method: "If you need one syllable, go with 'pled,'" he wrote. "If you need two, go with 'pleaded.'"

On two issues, however, all experts concur: 1. Never use the phrase "pleaded innocent." One pleads "not guilty." 2. Never use the phrase "pleaded guilty of the charge." One pleads guilty TO the charge.

So what to do about "pled"? In other tight spots like this, I've often pleaded (and sometimes pled) the Fifth. Being one-quarter Scottish -- my middle name is "Stewart," after all -- I'm tempted to open up a fifth of Scotch and write my own version of a Robert Burns poem: