Billy Graham: An American classic, but more importantly a man of God and of unimpeachable character. I was already signed up for Bible college (maybe attending?) when I first saw a crusade of his on TV (replayed in 2003/4 from the 80s) and I wanted to do exactly what he was doing. . This also seems an appropriate time to explain that the cryptic lyric "gnawing at the prophet who had tried to warn" [from The Great Expanse] refer's to Billy Graham's following account: . "Sometime toward the end of the second week in November [1963], I unaccountably felt such a burden about the presidential visit to Dallas that I decided to phone our mutual friend, Senator [George] Smathers, to tell him I really wanted to talk to the president. His secretary told me Senator Smathers was on the Senate floor and would call me back. Instead, he sent me a telegram that the President would get in touch with me directly. He thought I wanted to talk about the President’s invitation to another golf game in Florida that weekend; the game was off, he said, and would have to be rescheduled. But all I wanted to tell him and the President was one thing: 'Don’t go to Texas!'" (Just As I Am, p. 400) #billygraham #evangelist #american (at Bronx, New York)