So, I was at a Liberty Fund conference this past weekend in Philadelphia. It was directed by the rather awesome Hollywood screenwriter, Adam Simon. I’ve been at a number of conferences with Adam before, and he likes to refer to me as “his brother from a different mother.” Adam’s Jewish and from the left, and I’m Catholic and from the right. But, we really (as in really, really) like each other. Truly, we’re brothers from a different mother. I love the guy.

If you don’t know, Liberty Fund, which has been around since 1960, long before I was born, the institute hosts week-end conferences with, roughly, fifteen participants. This past conference, in Philly, was me and fourteen participants and two observers. We were talking about screwball comedies from the 1930s and 1940s–It Happened One Night, Philadelphia Story, the Awful Truth, Bringing Up Baby, etc–along with philosophy from Hannah Arendt and Stanley Cavell. We were trying to figure out if we could find anything deep and philosophical about the nature of rights and our right to pursue happiness in Hollywood films.

I loved all 14 of the participants, but I was especially taken with the humor and wit of Wesley. That’s all I knew about him–he was Wesley. I was told by the other participants that he had written four novel and was also big in music.

On the final night–after at least one Aviation cocktail (my favorite)–I asked Wes about his music tastes. It turned out that we both love progressive rock, and he’s even a huge fan of Jerry Ewing and PROG magazine.

I then asked him his stage name. And, much to my surprise, he told me that he was John Wesley Harding. Holy Moses, a total favorite! I was stunned and thrilled.

Here he is, way back in the early 1990s on MTV, with Adam Simon directing: