Reminds me of the change in media reporting a while back from "pled" to "pleaded". Probably at the commandment of the AP style board. A lifetime of "pled" and then WTH?
With all of the other irregularities in the English language, do we really need to suffer through inartful sounding conjugations?
Dove.
Cranky, middle-aged guy - out ...
I once was on a committee to rewrite some bylaws. A lady (I'm being nice) on the committee insisted that we use the AP style board English. I explained to her nicely (the first time) that the AP style board English was to standardize newspaper print (Associated Press). They don't write bylaws. Soooooo, if you're printing it in the newspaper, then use whatever floats your boat. Otherwise use the correct past tense of dived. Why can't people just leave our language alone. (I'm pretty sure that the folks across the pond have been saying that for a couple of centuries now)
Cheers - M²