Much of the past week has been spent laughing at penguin memes. Because when the U.S. decides to put tariffs on islands containing nothing but penguins, seagulls and seals, the world will provide penguin memes.

Sure, they're laughing at us. But at least some of us can laugh along with them, and lord knows I love penguins (they're my second favorite animal after cats).

Meanwhile, I find myself defending use of they/them as singular, something I might have had a problem with years back when I was a little more snobby about grammar (back when I didn't know that many of our grammar rules were the result of someone's pet peeve, and that making oneself understood is more important than following grammar rules that came about because someone didn't like prepositions ending sentences). That was before I made peace with the fact that, like life itself, language evolves. And sometimes it evolves back to older usage.

If you're honest with yourself, you might realize you've been using they/them as singular long before the more recent pivot back to it (though maybe not in writing) when you were referring to someone whose gender you might not know until they appear. "When they get here, we can figure out what they want" sounds like something lots of people would say.

Only now,........

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