I say persona, he says personum?

[Benjamin Barrett]

To me, "the sum of one's character" sounds fine. Here are some  
supporting Googits:

BB

“I always think that, while we come into the world with certain  
innate talents, you really become the sum of your environment,” Beard  
said in his Camp Hill office, a Nittany Lion Head carving in the  
window. (http://www.ed.psu.edu/news/beard.asp)

The sum of his majesty's speech (i.e., summation): http:// 
books.google.com/books?id=op0MAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA146&lpg=PA146&dq=%22the 
+sum+of+his%22+-parts+- 
oddities&source=web&ots=MQ_eJGJ08O&sig=Ox_QDyJPXU6JeeGKaP5tr8_hnxk

"...the sum of his misery" (http://books.google.com/books? 
id=01E4AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=%22the+sum+of+his%22+-parts+- 
oddities&source=web&ots=MVepAZSoIj&sig=DNRQRJcnIk643RwbeMK4yPXT-NA)

"Fanny and Alexander" (1982): The director famously called this  
family saga "the sum total of my life as filmmaker." (http:// 
www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2007/07/30/ 
highlights_of_bergmans_career/?page=2)

On Nov 18, 2007, at 1:27 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>
> Joe Klein ("a columnist for Time magazine and the author, most
> recently, of 'Politics Lost'") writes:
>
> "Hunter Thompson was always much more, and sometimes a bit less, than
> the sum of his ribald public persona."
>
> I suppose he might have written "totality", but for me "sum" requires
> a plural.  Perhaps his next book should be "Plurals Lost".
>

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