•March 1, 2023•
By Jim Baumann
NP Guest Writer

It’s 3:36 p.m. on Friday, and this lede is all I have to show for this column so far.
I’m sure you can smell my desperation for a topic.
Sometimes running a newsroom during election season gets in the way of writing pithy things about grammar.
Enter Patt Baumann, the love of my life and occasional column saver.
“Oooh, write about the difference between ‘incidents’ and ‘instances,’” she said.
Patt tells me she hears people use “incidents” and “instances” interchangeably. I’d never given that much thought, but it’s a good idea.
“Incident” — as a noun — is an occurrence or event.
Think about a fender-bender — something rather inconsequential.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.