It's true you can be lenient about this, but the Associated Press style is to distinguish: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/assure.html http://www.wsu.edu/~bri

It's true you can be lenient about this, but the Associated Press style is to distinguish: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/assure.html http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/assure.html. I would have thought the Times would follow suit. They really are two different words.