In Puerta's case we are dealing with a real situation, and fatalists may decide he was spared 18 months ago to turn up at Roland Garros this afternoon and win the most coveted prize in the clay-court game.
But when the White House was spared, Americans seemed to turn even more toward it and the president as symbols of hope and calm and security.
Casual game developers are the bloggers of the gaming industry: individuals and two-person teams of all ages with scant game-design experience, toiling away during their spare moments to turn out addictive browser games like "Bloons" and "Desktop Tower Defense".
The words "mansion tax" sound appealing; it's a phrase clearly designed to appeal to those who like the idea of clobbering old rich people who have a spare floor to turn into a house for their chocolate Labrador.
(As Andy Greenwald pointed out, this show can't really spare the braiiins to turn the Woodbury compound into a political allegory, and this one is already teetering into heavy-handed territory).
It would spare judges from having to turn themselves into theologians; it would protect the integrity of religious beliefs about the nature of marriage; and it would create a level playing-field for all manner of pairs of people who want to spend their lives together.
Sunderland's manager hopes he will use the spare time to resolve to turn over a new leaf.
But how easy is it to turn a spare-time passion into a profitable enterprise?
Could it be time to turn your spare rooms to your advantage, and make a bit of money out of your home?
That would allow the accused to turn themselves in and spare Kenya, at least initially, the awkwardness of having to hand over its political elite.
She doesn't just point her camera at two young sisters who turn cartwheels for spare change in a crosswalk, seeking tips from idling drivers waiting for the light to turn green.
