Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Why was he always smiling?

Review: IKE’S BLUFF, President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World, by Evan Thomas

Puts the lie to the misconception “nothing happened in the 1950s.” In reality the 50s were a turbulent time where humanity teetered on the brink of nuclear annihilation. This is an appealing and eminently readable portrait of Eisenhower, war hero, now turned peacekeeper. Churchill gets all the credit for saving the West, and we don’t dispute, but now, here, Eisenhower gets his due for saving humanity. Well-crafted blend of human and institutional insights, clear-eyed, neither fawning nor cutting.

Special insight, comeback angle:

“The famous smile, Ike told his grandson, David, came not from some sunny feel-good philosophy but from getting knocked down by a boxing coach at West Point. The coach refused to spar anymore after Ike got up off the mat looking rueful. “If you can’t smile when you get up from a knockdown,” the coach said, “you’re never going to lick an opponent.” P30 IKE’S BLUFF, President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World, by Evan Thomas

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Prison didn't stop Dave Dahl and his Killer Bread


IN AND OUT of jail and prison for 15 of his 49 years, Dave Dahl, a former armed robber and recovering drug addict, is a self-professed “slow learner.” The creator of Dave’s Killer Bread, he is also living proof that even a slow learner who seems destined for a life of crime can turn his life around.

After a solid start growing up in a family of bakers, Dahl slid into a life of alcohol, drugs, stealing and dealing. As it turned out, he wasn’t a very gifted criminal, beginning a series of in and- out incarcerations. It was during his last sentence that he began to see the light. “I was fortunate to suffer in prison, because I got clean, and for the first time in my life I was confident without drugs,” says Dahl, who discovered at that time that he suffered from clinical depression.

He also discovered that he was smarter than he realized and a lot more interested in what life had to offer than in his next fix. He began working out and studying health and nutrition with a renewed fervor. After his 2004 release, clean and sober, Dahl rejoined his family’s baking business. His brother, Glenn, owner of NatureBake (www.naturebake. com), the healthful-bread business started by their father in the 1950s, welcomed him back and encouraged his ideas.

Within six months, Dave had designed six varieties of whole-grain, organic bread, four of which were introduced in August 2005 at the Portland Farmers Market’s “Summer Loaf ” artisan bread festival to rave reviews. At the helm of Dave’s Killer Bread, Dahl now produces approximately 400,000 loaves of bread a week (16 varieties) with names such as “Good Seed” and “Rockin’ Rye.”

It’s sold at Costco (for specific locations, or to order by mail, visit www.daveskiller bread.com). Dahl—who now spends a good deal of his time sharing his story of redemption with at-risk youths, business leaders, law enforcement and politicians— says he’s in no hurry to grow. “We’re going slow; we don’t want to grow too fast,” he says. This time, being a slow learner has its benefits. —T. Foster Jones for Costco magazine