Tom, is it a big company? I hear tell of computerized resume review, so you might want to make sure you're using the exact words from the listing in your resume and letter.

oh - that's right. Use the phrases, terms, etc., that they've used in describing the position. Someone's resume didn't get through that because her degree couldn't be described in the exact way they had defined.

Last time I assisting in hiring, we only got the resumes, no cover letters. They had gone through HR first, but when they were forwarded to the interviewing team, we just got the resume.

My ex the medical student and I agreed that Cooking With Soup was a defining trait of a certain working, lower-middle class strata in American culture. (One that we both belonged to.)

Yeah, it's a very post-war thing, using the new processed foods as a time-saving technique.

The biologists gave me the answer I wanted! Yay!

But OMG so many phone calls and meetings today, and me with my ears still ringing from last night's concert...

This goes back to my grits question. Grits are entirely American, made from a Western Hemisphere plant, and based on American Indian cooking. Most Americans, however, do not have a cultural history of grits for breakfast.

Mmmm, grits... Waffle House turned me on to grits. Love them.

"American culture" is in Texas is probably not what American culture is in Manhattan.

That's why I don't think there is *an* American culture. We're too big.

That's why I don't think there is *an* American culture. We're too big.

Hunan, Szechuan or Shanghai noodles, madame?

Hunan, Szechuan or Shanghai noodles, madame?

Kraft dinner, yo.

That's why I don't think there is *an* American culture. We're too big.

I think there are probably American cultural traits, if that's a thing. Like, wanting it new, wanting it fast, wanting it time-saving, wanting it *perfect*. But I think that gets translated into a lot of different traditions from region to region.

I think there are probably American cultural traits, if that's a thing. Like, wanting it new, wanting it fast, wanting it time-saving, wanting it *perfect*. But I think that gets translated into a lot of different traditions from region to region.

Also, you have in the US a particularly-mobile subset of the workforce, namely the professional working class, which is likely to move some distance at least once during their lifetime. As a result, I think some cultural traditions (like regional accents and turns of phrase) are losing their power...

Mmm, grits.

But I never heard of Kraft dinner until I met Canadians. So while Kraft mac and cheese may be part of my ethnic food, "Kraft dinner" isn't.