Recently here on the Corner and in Impromptus, I’ve had some items on “boys” and “girls,” and the loss, or profound alteration, of those words. A reader writes, “My Louisiana birth certificate from 1962 asks, ‘Sex — Girl or Boy?’ I don’t know what the form asks now, but I bet not that.” I bet so too.

Of course, the guys in my father’s generation did something routinely: When a form said “Sex,” you wrote, “Yes.” Later, as you know, the word “gender” took over. Can’t joke much with that. Although I have a friend who, when he wants you to be a man on the golf course or basketball court or something, says, “Check your gender.”