Not at 10 am on thanksgiving and on a weekday . <| sep |> I reckon half a century is long ago when it comes to such matters . <| sep |> I visited twice and rode the subway , but not since the new craze . Why do you ask ? <| sep |> I worked out , got fit , and changed how I dressed . I ' m almost too cocky now because I ' m fully aware that I ' m attractive . <| sep |> In person I talk Dutch , so the problem doesn ' t arise in the same way . In any case , on here , whenever I refer to some OP , or the writer of some comment that was referenced , I use , without giving it any special thought , singular they . Also , you might like to know , clicking around on the site you linked me to below , I found that apparently the use of singular they was abolished in England , or at least the use of the masculine as a generic pronoun was established , by an act of Parliament in 1850 Origin of He as a Generic Pronoun ' He ' started to be used as a generic pronoun by grammarians who were trying to change a longestablished tradition of using ' they ' as a singular pronoun . In 1850 an Act of Parliament gave official sanction to the recently invented concept of the generic ' he . ' . . . he new law said , ' words importing the masculine gender shall be deemed and taken to include females . ' R . Barker and C . Moorcroft , Grammar First . Nelson Thornes , 2003