1. Q. In what field?
A. Atmospheric science.

That's the absolutely PERFECT degree to work in the King County Elections Office, what with all that hot air floating around.

Posted by: On the Far Right Side of the State on May 20, 2005 04:41 PM

2. Maybe he's just numbers-averse. Doesn't know the exact year he graduated. Doesn't know the exact number of ballots . . . Like, they're numbers, man. Why do you have to be so precise?

Posted by: Shannon K on May 20, 2005 05:04 PM

3. Q. How does your B.S. Atmospheric Science apply to Elections Office work?
A. Excellent question. Someone on staff must be expert in making ballots appear and disappear in thin air.

Q. How did you find this job?
A. Excellent question. On an internet chat room.

Posted by: Elvis is the King County on May 20, 2005 05:05 PM

4. But even with only a bachelor's degree Fell is much better educated that his boss Dean Logan, who has only a high school diploma.

As for whether a BS or BA is more appropriate for a clerk. I would probably hire the BS because he actually had to work to get his degree.

Posted by: DeadWood on May 20, 2005 05:12 PM

5. I would probably hire the BS because he actually had to work to get his degree.

Whoa! I have a BA (in Math) and I worked pretty darn hard.

Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on May 20, 2005 05:13 PM

6. The primary qualification for the job is a faulty memory. He's perfect.

Posted by: Dogbert on May 20, 2005 05:20 PM

7. Call me whatever, but at least I KNOW what year I graduated from UW! (how do you NOT know that??)

Posted by: Michele on May 20, 2005 05:21 PM

8. Dogbert, LOL! With that faulty memory, he probably would've been a good fit in the Clinton adminstration, too!

Posted by: Michele on May 20, 2005 05:23 PM

9. BTW - Has atmospheric sciences really decended that low? Handing out BS degrees to people who can't remember 8 years later when they graduated? Posterboy for "don't do drugs".

Posted by: Dogbert on May 20, 2005 05:23 PM

10. Atmospheric sciences? Was he hired simply for parroting the party line about global warming?

Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on May 20, 2005 05:29 PM

11. Does anyone know when he started working for King County and the other positions he has held?

Posted by: Elections office a dumping ground? on May 20, 2005 05:33 PM

12. Stefan:

And I bet you say "BA in math" rather the "BA". And for exactly the reason to which I alluded.

Liberal Arts BA's are toilet paper. Even in the 80's when I graduated with my BS, employers preferrred science or math degrees to BA's.

When I returned to grad school in the 90's and was teaching mostly liberal arts freshmen, I found out it had deteriorated even further than when when I was teaching in the early 80's. At least in the early 80's they could write a coherent paragraph or think their way out of wet paper bag without holding their hand.

Of course, maybe I just got less tolerant of slackers after having worked for 10 years in the real world.

Posted by: DeadWood on May 20, 2005 05:40 PM

13. Funny. I always found things to be a bit different. When I worked in the tech support business, I found that the workers who has liberal arts degrees were moreable to think on thier feet than the ones with techincal degrees taht couldn't get past the "well it's supposed to work that way, I don't know why it doesn't" phase. In other words, those with only technical degrees couldn't troubleshoot.
-Eyago. BS Physics, Seattle U. 1988. (Memory hasn't gone yet.)

Posted by: Eyago on May 20, 2005 05:50 PM

14. Eyago - That is because they hire people at the entry level for tech support. They haven't learned troublshooting at the school of hard knocks.

If you take a car with a funny noise to the engineer who designed it, he'll spend two days trying to diagnose the problem, and then give up. Take the same car to an experienced mechanic, and he'll put his finger on the problem in 5 minutes. Why? Because he's seen it before. Happens all of the time. Sometimes it's better not to know the theory (coming from someone with an M.S. in engineering, and three licenses).

Posted by: Dogbert on May 20, 2005 06:09 PM

15. O.k., Stefan, I feel real stupid here! What exactly is the difference between a BA and a BS? I got a BA in math, too, but I completed the courses required for a BS degree. Since I also got a degree in history (overloaded on classes, worked like a dog; what was I thinking?), was the BA the default degree? I was kind of surprised. I expected a BA in history and a BS in math, but they just put BA on the diploma. I figured, what the heck! I had all the classes, so if anyone wanted to look at my transcripts they'd see that. So - maybe you can explain this to me.

Posted by: PeggyU on May 20, 2005 06:13 PM

16. Maybe he's suffering from the early onset of "mind-o-pause!'

Posted by: James Thielges on May 20, 2005 07:12 PM

17. PeggyU,

There is very little difference. MIT only gives BSs and Harvard only BAs (this used to be true anyway). If you took history at MIT you got a BS, if you took physics at Harvard you got a BA.

Posted by: Fred on May 20, 2005 07:15 PM

18. A typical Husky.....

(Go Cougs!)

Posted by: zapporo on May 20, 2005 07:27 PM

19. A light year here, a light year there, heck--it's all rounding.

This must be real--no sitcom writer could think up this script!! I'd laugh, except it's MY state MY vote and MY taxes. How pathetic.

Bright side: his degree was not in animal husbandry. Mr. Test Tube Collector would have jazzed THAT job up, too!!

Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on May 20, 2005 07:32 PM

20. wow

Posted by: Danny on May 20, 2005 07:34 PM

21. I like this guy's big-a**ed title. Like an orange corn puff snack. Crunch. No substance.

After he is relieved of his duties soon, he will reappear in a new career. Drawing lab samples from YOUR arm. A guy who can't remember his graduation--now sticking you with a hypo. Yeeeeeaa!

Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on May 20, 2005 07:41 PM

22. Atmospheric science - must have been studying the atmosphere between his ears.

Posted by: DeadManVoting (aka Iguana) on May 20, 2005 09:14 PM

23. Hey, even I remember graduating Cal Poly Pomona in 1992. And I didn't have to send in that many Froot Loops boxtops, either!

Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) on May 20, 2005 10:53 PM

24. Michele:

It could have something to do with the all the super-seniors I know--people who have been around at college for more than four years and are finally working on senior level classes...yeah, some of them might forget.

Posted by: Mark WWU on May 21, 2005 01:31 AM

25. Yes, but he did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night...

Posted by: South County on May 21, 2005 06:37 AM

26. "Hey, even I remember graduating Cal Poly Pomona in 1992. And I didn't have to send in that many Froot Loops boxtops, either!"

Oh. The "new" Cal Poly.... We always suspected the "Froot Loop boxtops" story was true (smile)

s/1982 Cal Poly SLO engineering grad

(no inter-school rivalry there! LOL)

Posted by: FlyingTigress on May 21, 2005 08:01 AM

27. How does one go from gradute to assistant superintendant? Any where in the real world a grad would start out a little lower on the ladder.

Posted by: JCM on May 21, 2005 08:19 AM

28. Mr. Fell probably knew someone within the Democratic Party power structure when he was hired.
As was reported before, nepotism (as well as despotism) is alive and well in King County.

Posted by: otto on May 21, 2005 09:04 AM

29. Hey JCM,

Keep in mind what he is the Assistant Superintendent of. Ballot Processing and Delivery. Boil it down and his job is carrying the boxes of ballots out to the van and driving them to the new location. Haven't you ever been in a job where you got a title instead of a raise?

LOL

Posted by: Calvin A on May 21, 2005 09:17 AM

30. And the Democratic Party still paints eight years of Reagan as him napping in office eating jelly-beans.

Sheesh. Can not remember year graduated college. The mind boggles.

Posted by: Anna on May 21, 2005 11:08 AM

31. "Can not remember year graduated college. The mind boggles."

You mean bongs.

Posted by: Dogbert on May 21, 2005 11:18 AM

32. Butt-head: I'm, like, angry at numbers.
Beavis: There's like, too many of 'em and stuff.

Posted by: lunaslide on May 21, 2005 02:56 PM

33. *wry* I worked on my degree (on and off) from 1991 to 1999. Ended up with "only" an AA. (Never went to my graduation ceremony) And I STILL know I graduated in 1999.

I agree that it is hard to credit how he doesn't remember when he graduated. Unless, I guess, the diploma means that little to him...

Posted by: Sarah of WA on May 22, 2005 10:37 PM

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