[bobbykjack]

And many of us object to that male default. About the first thing I learnt at any serious level of linguistics teaching is that language does not stand still, it evolves. It would be trivial to say "did they say they were in the bay area" in this instance.

[byoung2]

Using "they" would be grammatically incorrect since the subject is singular. To be politically and grammatically correct I could have gone with "he/she" or "the OP" but statistics and history are on my side with "he" knowing the demographics on this site.

[radq]

"They" can be and is commonly used as a gender-neutral singular.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they

[byoung2]

In the acceptability section of that Wikipedia article, most style guides reject singular they usage.