Forth & Fourth

As in, "After the first three butterflies emerged, the fourth came forth."

Straight & Strait

Which direction did the boat sail between two outcroppings of land?
Strait.
Ba-dum-bum.

Gnu, Knew, New

This one goes out to Yvonne Treis, who emailed me recently to suggest it (possibly because she knows I like doing the animal ones best). In other words, she asked for this new post because she knew I'd want to draw the gnu.

Links & Lynx

As in, "You really shouldn't chain up a wildcat."

Vain, Vane, Vein

Oh, man, I can't think of a sentence that uses all three of these in an interesting way. You?

Penance & Pennants

As in, "I feel guilty for even knowing that the World Series is on right now."

Rappel & Repel

With an A and two Ps – a method of descending a vertical surface.
With an E – push apart.

Him & Hymn

Tide & Tied

Lead & Led

With an A – a heavy metal, atomic number 82.
Without an A – past tense of, well, Lead. Oh, sheesh, that's confusing. "Lead/Lead" would be a good candidate for Homographs, Weakly, if I decided to branch out a bit.

And speaking of heavy metal:

Cornet & Coronet

Keep calm and scabba-dabba-doo-bop. I think Louis Armstrong said that.

Tighten & Titan

And for those who like their Titans a little more astronomical, and a lot more Proper Noun:

Creak & Creek

ea – a small, irritating noise.

ee – a small, soothing river.
I might have too much going on in the Creek picture, there. Don't be surprised if I think on it some more and change it one of these days. I feel like it needs the human for scale (so you can tell it's not as big as a river), and the bridge implies permanence (so it's not someone standing beside a puddle). But I don't know, it doesn't quite look right to me. But an aerial view of a river wouldn't work either... I don't know. It is what it is... for now. :)

Some & Sum

As in, "You need to add some to get sum."

Beach & Beech

As in, "You may have noticed there was no post last week. Instead, I took a lake-y, forest-y vacation."

Tic & Tick

With a K – small, unwelcome parasite.
Without a K – small, unwelcome twitch.

Ad & Add

Two Ds – makes you smarter.

One D – makes you dumber.

Hey, it's my 200th post! And still no book deal! :P

Bread & Bred

As in, "For thousands of years the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been bred for its use in wine, beer, and bread."

Baron & Barren

Following up last week's Magnate with his twin brother the Baron. Too bad the Baroness can't bear children.
See what I did there?... :)

Magnate & Magnet

Yes, if you cornered the market on magnets, you could become a magnet magnate. I guess.
This one goes out to my buddy Abe at Green Light Music & Video in Kalamazoo, who requested this one a couple times already. I finally got to it, Abe!