Bruce writes:

> In the provincial English that we speak here in Canada we often use they,
>  them, or their when referring to a single person of indeterminate sex to
>  avoid default sex assumptions such as "Saying this allows one to avoid
>  tooting his own horn" or ungainly alternatives such as "Saying this allows
>  one to avoid tooting his or her own horn".

Bruce has it exactly right. When I wrote that sentence, I actually gave it
some thought. My first inclination was to write exactly the sentence that Alan
recommends, "Saying this allows one to avoid tooting one's own horn," but I
decided against that form simply because it seemed simultaneously too bland and
too uppity.

But I truly dislike the politically correct "his or her" alternative, so I
decided to use the relatively new colloquialism, "their," as the all-inclusive,
gender-indeterminate possessive pronoun. At the time that I wrote it, I said
to myself, "Self, this is a colloquialism," but in a somewhat prolonged debate
between me and myself, myself and I agreed, "Hell, no one's going to notice."
We were apparently wrong.

Wirt Atmar

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