Thank you for the helpful comment. I can't help but feel you miss the point of my post though. I can solve the problem. Verbally, (but admittedly less eloquently and less complete) I approximately gave your answer in the interview. Give me a quiet Monday morning, a pair of headphones and a compiler/interpreter and I can solve it well.

It's the fact that it is being used as a filter when the person filtering doesn't know what is being filtered in and out.

All in all, it's a spectacular waste of time and money.