Choosing a heavy stew, or kidneys, traditionally served with polenta - a leaden maize-based potato substitute - would be a gaffe in a stiffling Milanese summer.
As Scottsbluff's mayor, Donald Overman, recalls that unpleasant morning several years back, snow was blowing out of a leaden sky when his eastbound Frontier Commuter Airlines flight set down at North Platte, Neb.
Bush escaped a heat wave in Washington with temperatures in the high 90s only to find leaden skies and temperatures in the 60s.
Neither Lesley Collier nor Bruce Sansom convinced me of the otherworldly allure of Titania and Oberon; the lovers played for laughs in a singularly leaden way.
Lo and behold, once Zany Tactics was in the gate, his formerly leaden feet took wings.