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by David Silverman  June 15, 2009   In my last post I talked about how to make your résumé more likely to catch the attention of a hiring manager. As a follow up, I’d like to discuss cover letters. Here’s my basic philosophy on them: don’t bother. That’s because the cover letters I see usually fall into one of three categories: The recap: The résumé in prose form. It’s redundant, harder to read than the résumé, and provides no additional insight. The form letter: This says, essentially, “Dear Sir or Madam: I saw your ad in the paper and thought you might like me.” And it’s clearly a form letter where maybe they got my name and company right. If they’re lucky, I will still take the time to read their résumé after being insulted with a form letter. The “I’m crazy”: This one’s rare, and it expands on the résumé of experience with some personal insights. Examples range from the merely batty (“I find batik as an art form has taught me to become both a better person an...

The Date Harvest and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Dates (Pictorial) The date season really begins early in the year when we clean up the trees after the end of the dormant period. At this time, we have to start by cutting the thorns off of the date fronds. They say that everything in the desert protects itself by stinging, biting, or poking. And the date trees are no different. They have thorns that are approximately 4 to 5 inches long, and can easily pierce thru a truck tire. So the very first thing we do is to remove the thorns to make it possible to work in the date trees. The Sex Life of a Date Date Palms are unique in that they are either a male tree or a female tree. The male trees produce pollen, and the female trees produce flowers. Unfortunately, neither birds or bees are attracted to the flowers, so the females have to be hand pollinated. During the later part of February we begin to watch for the sheaths on the male trees to begin splittin...