On the Ted Radio Hour, linguist Anne Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.

I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular, and I will say, but it is.

The history behind words causing a lot of debate that's on the Ted Radio Hour from NPR.

Stephen Thompson, I heard a rumor about you.

What would that be, Robin?

And it's a rumor that I just cannot believe is true so I have to ask anything you have heard about me is a

dirty dirty lie. Well what I heard was that you were actually a very very good student.

Well keep in mind that half the curriculum in those days was just cave maintenance.

So...

How to keep your cave clean?

No, I heard you were a very good student.

Is that true?

Were you, did you do really well in school?

I was a, in high school, I was a grade grubber.

Yeah.

And also, I grew up in a very, very small town and so you know being like third in my

class of 40. Didn't really mean much. I was a terrible student. I truly was terrible. I never really took to

school, I guess you could say, and you know I could not wait to get out of there. Somehow I did manage to graduate, which was around this time of year,

a number of years ago, and graduation. It was a couple years ago.

Sometime, sometime ago. Some time ago.

And graduation season is here again.

So we did a call out to listeners asking them to tell us about a song that takes them back to this time.

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