I don’t object at all to the word “steerage” and that’s what we usually fly now that H doesn’t travel as much and lost his status.
“There’s a dress code in first class? Who knew.”
I once boarded a flight in Texas, and walking through first class there was only one person sitting there: former Governor Ann Richards. She had her shoes off, her feet propped up, and a great big hole at the end of one of her stockings with her big toe sticking out! Although she was well-known in Texas for self-deprecation and her sense of humor, I was still taken aback.
*edit
Re: “heir” instead of she and he
A wealthy person died. Heirs heirs are fighting over inheritances. Each thinks that heirs share should be larger than the other heirs’ shares, while the executor tells heir what the will and trust actually says.
This grammatical characterization is absolutely and utterly incorrect—if it were correct, there’d be a singular *you was/i to go along with a plural you were. However, both the singular and the plural you take were—largely because, in Middle English (and continuing somewhat into Early Modern English), *you/i was only plural. It could never, ever be singular—that belonged to thou. Over time, you expanded to take over the plural and singular second-person pronominal spaces, and thou went away. Note, by the way, that knowing whether you is singular or plural depends on associated context—just like knowing if they is singular or plural requires associated context.
Similarly (and in a quite remarkably parallel way) they was historically only plural, but over the past few centuries has been taking over the singular pronominal niche—and, quite similarly to you, has retained the “plural” verb form (thus giving both Did the students say they were cheating? and Did the student say they were cheating?).
Really, the only way that you can say that you is used in singular and plural verb conjugations in a way that they is not is if you limit yourself to the tables found in usage manuals and ignore the history of the English pronominal system entirely. Well, or if you consistently only use you as a plural, I suppose.
- This wasn't caused by the Quakers, by the way, no matter the frequency with which one hears that linguistic urban legend—this change was well under way by the time the Quakers came on the scene.
Not to quibble, but OK, to quibble–isn’t this the subjunctive, anyway? But do we consistently use “they” with plural constructions when we use it as a singular? I’m not sure–will we say, “Everybody take their seat” or “Everybody take their seats.”?
How about this? “Who was the person I saw you with last night?” “They was my friend Pat.” Or “They were my friend Pat.”? (I know you could do it without the pronoun, of course.)
Non-gendered:
“Hey, you!”
Other options would be to continue exclaiming “Excuse me” and making throat-clearing noises until the customer’s attention was obtained, or to just go for it and give it your best shot.
Hey, you! – sounds rude
Excuse me! (ahem!) – sounds aggressive and if the person’s back is already turned to you, the person might not realize you are targeting them.
Guessing with “ma’am” or “sir” – you might get it wrong, which would be a disaster. Or, if the person is non-gendered, that person might be offended by either (or not).
Maybe we should all wear name tags.
No.
No. Look at the parallel first person construction.
(1) I was cheating… (not subjunctive)
(2) If I were cheating… (subjunctive)
(3) Did I say I was cheating? (not subjunctive)
(4) *Did I say I were cheating? (nonstandard, nobody says this, this is not a case where we use the subjunctive)
OK, but what about my other question? Are we going to say “They were my friend Pat?” I guess it’s better than “They was my friend Pat.” While it’s true that “they” has been used as a non-gendered singular pronoun, I don’t think it’s been used very often in sentences like that.
^ That would be a perfect case for using “heir” as the pronoun, assuming Pat does not want to be identified as male or female. If Pat was clearly a male or a female in both body and mind, you’d obviously say “He was my friend Pat,” or “She was my friend Pat.”
“They was my friend Pat” is awkward. I chuckle.
As we said in the long discussion about this, there is no perfect solution, assuming one agrees that there is a problem. “It” is too dehumanizing, “their” sounds awkward to many of us, and the made up words sound even more forced and awkward, at least to me. But since I do think that there is a problem, my vote would go to “they” as the most painless solution. I guess I’d also vote for “they were,” as we do with a singular “you.” The pain of hearing it will fade eventually, hopefully.
In this instance, can’t we just rephrase?
That (one) is my friend Pat.
That (one) was my friend Pat.
I pretty much like “they” - it really helps me out.
I’ve linked to this before, but: https://xkcd.com/1483/
Replace quotative like with singular they, and you have the happy or unhappy (depending on your own preferences) truth…
Sometimes you can rephrase, but it would be a chore to always do so. “Pat just called.” What did he/she/they want?" You could even rephrase that, but you’d have to give up a lot of pretty normal sentences.
and just because it is an interesting discussion to me learning how different groups work …
in my social circle it is standard to ask dinner guests if there are dietary restrictions.
- send email invite
- guest accepts and asks “what can (may?) I bring?”
- host responds, “not a thing but your appetite” and asks if there are dietary restrictions
- guest brings flowers, wine, or box of chocolates
Actually, if someone says Pat just called and I don’t know whether Pat is male or female, my natural tendency would be to say What did they want? without a second thought about it.
No, seriously, I’m so embedded in it that it doesn’t sound in the least odd to me. In fact, I might even respond with that if someone said Jane just called, though, of course, that would be less likely.
Pat just called.
What did Pat want?
I don’t even need a pronoun 
“What did they want” sounds natural to me, too. “They were my friend Pat” doesn’t, though.
Who is she/he?
Who is that?
They seem equivalent to me. I am not a grammarian.
Getting someone’s attention: I use “excuse me” and don’t think it is interpreted as aggressive in my case. It would be difficult for anyone to read my behavior as aggressive since I’m a southern woman with an accent. Of course, once I have the individual’s attention, I say “please” and then “thank you”
These days I generally call to wait staff using their given names, by which they have introduced themselves when I was seated. It does feel strange. But I am getting over it.