To give everybody a rest from Henry James: An ESL student in my class wrote, "Now I am a friend of him." Is there a good reason I can give him for why it should be "of HIS"? It gets funny with proper names, too. If we knew each other well, I might describe myself as a friend of Bill Clinton's. But, at least for the first four or five days of his term, I would have described myself as a supporter of Bill Clinton. Go figure. Please.