There have been several words the past few days. I hope they are not for currently active puzzles, but with the staggered times, they rather run together.

TRAPEZIUM -- the nine letter 'common' word: is it really all that common?

lended -- not allowed at all. It is non-standard per most dictionaries, but other non-standard words are allowed.

chanties (as in sea chanties) -- not allowed though it is a fairly common spelling in my experience.

Methinks there were one or two others, but senility ....

Two more Bible words: choosest and chosest; plus one other: theosis.

The word buildest [Deuteronomy 22:8] was not accepted in yesterday's puzzle.  

I didn't even notice that, enisform. Apparently, an '8' followed by a close parenthesis creates that Cool Joe symbol. (I fixed it.)

The MECHANICS have taken a DIRECT AIM on these puzzles!
 

I have no idea how to determine this, but am confident our Word-Meister Alan can.

Traditionally, American English does not double the ell (I seem to vaguely recall some rule about non-stressed syllable?) and thus spells it canceled (which looks strange to me), whilst the rest of the English-speaking world doubles the ell and spells it cancelled.

But I have the impression there is a growing trend in the U.S. to use the cancelled spelling. I've noticed on news stories about flight cancellations due to weather, that the obligatory camera shot of the monitor showing the status of flights the doubled-ell spelling seems more common than it used to be. And I came across an observation at Is it canceled or cancelled? which seems to bear this out.

An interesting web site which automatically compares Google search results, shows the double-ell cancelled is almost twice as popular as the single-ell form: cancelled VS. canceled

Do other Americans see this trend as well?

I sure hope not. The pictures of the damage done by Cyclone Yasi are terrible.

Queensland sure has had a terrible streak of horrible weather.

I looked up aconite to find it is a perennial herb. But I've never heard of it. Is it endemic to Australia?