I say persona, he says personum?

[Joel S. Berson]

Did Klein mean that Thompson had more than one ribald personality, or
just one which could be summed?

As for the examples, aren't they using "sum" in a different sense?  "
5. The total amount or quantity, the totality, aggregate, or whole
(of something immaterial)."  I don't mind "the sum of one's
character", but I would not choose to say "the sum of one's personality".

Joel

At 11/18/2007 04:42 PM, BB wrote:
>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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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org