Disputatio:Michael Jackson

"mortuus propter infarctum cordis"

Examples from Cicero, Horace, & Ovid in Cassell's (under morior) show that the thing that people die of, literally or figuratively, is in the bare ablative; ergo melius "infarctu cordis mortuus." (Fourth declension?) Also, Livy has an example of the ablative with ex. ¶ However, do we really know for sure that it was an infarct? The doctors at his bedside were unwilling to sign a certificate saying so, and they preferred to let the coroner decide. All we know right now is that his heart stopped ("cardiac arrest"). IacobusAmor 12:27, 26 Iunii 2009 (UTC)

What was he?

The text once called him a cantor, and now calls him a musicus. More pertinent, I'd say, would be saltator, but the English wiki may have the best take on him: he was a "recording artist and entertainer." We're too close in time to pronounce a permanent judgment, but it seems likely that his main contribution to history was choreography, captured in a widely watched video; add singing & self-promotion to that, and you have an "entertainer." IacobusAmor 12:27, 26 Iunii 2009 (UTC)

Mutavi ob repetitionem: cantor ... cantabat > musicus ... cantabat. Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 12:31, 26 Iunii 2009 (UTC)

Hmm. Sed Romani voluptatem ex repetitione ceperunt: de altera parte agri Sequanos decedere iuberet (Caes.), de digito anulum detrahere (Cic.), exire ex urbe (Cic.), eandem canere cantilenam (Ter.). IacobusAmor 12:54, 26 Iunii 2009 (UTC)

The Washington Post casts a cold eye on his career: its front-page headline today calls him an "object of acclaim [and] curiosity." IacobusAmor 14:28, 26 Iunii 2009 (UTC)