I'll Take Interesting Jobs for $200, Alex

	PHOTO COURTESY CHRIS PIZELLO/MONTREAL GAZETTE

Billy Wisse, BA'84, MA'94, puts words in Alex Trebek's mouth -- and makes sure the dapper TV game show host is able to pronounce them properly. Wisse is part of the writing staff on the enduringly popular Jeopardy!.

Each week, each writer is responsible for coming up with about 75 "clues" -- brain-teasing trivia bits that prompt contestants to provide answers in the form of questions. Wisse also prepares Trebek's scripts before each program is taped.

"If a clue is about the second largest island in the Indian Ocean, I'll let Alex know what the biggest island is too, just in case he wants to throw that in. I also make sure he knows the pronunciations of some of the trickier words," says Wisse.

In an age of mean-spirited game shows like The Weakest Link and Dog Eat Dog, Jeopardy! is widely regarded as one of the classier programs. Millions of TV watchers regularly make the show a viewing habit, and much of the credit for its continuing success goes to Wisse and the other writers, who have won armfuls of Emmy Awards. Wisse has earned two Emmys as part of the Jeopardy! team.

The writers strive for wittiness in their clues without being too cute, says Wisse. The aim is to be smart, but not too smart. "We want people to be able to get it right. The audience should react in one of three ways to a clue: 'Sure, I knew that,' 'Darn, I should have known that,' or 'I didn't know that and now I'm glad I do.'

Wisse arrived in Los Angeles after leaving McGill with dreams of making it as a screenwriter. "In a way, it's a good thing I didn't know how tough that was or I never would have come." Before landing a job as a Jeopardy! researcher, he toiled as a romance novel ghostwriter, a community newspaper movie critic and an action movie script-reader.

A self-confessed magazine junkie, Wisse says they tend to be among the chief sources of information for the clues he writes. "I can't walk past a newsstand without stopping and picking something up. American Heritage magazine is a good source. There's all kinds of stuff about American history in there, obscure people and obscure battles. Book reviews are good too. Reviewers often gussy up their pieces with interesting little facts taken from the books they're reviewing."

Wisse is known among Jeopardy! writers for his detailed knowledge of history, but he favours clues that focus on science. "I feel it's something people should know more about -- including me. I feel more virtuous coming up with clues about science than I do about TV sitcoms."

Cookies and Kindness

PHOTO: OWEN EGAN

Rhonda Amsel, BSc'71, MSc'77, just joined a very select group. A lecturer in the Department of Psychology, Amsel is one of only three university teachers in the country to have won both of Canada's top prizes for teaching excellence. Amsel recently earned a 3M Teaching Fellowship from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. In 1997, she was named Canadian Professor of the Year by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

"I've never met a student who didn't think she was their best teacher," says Naomi Lear, BSc'02. Shy and self-effacing, Amsel took a circuitous route to the classroom. She began working at McGill as a computer technician. Colleagues soon noticed that she had a knack for explaining statistics clearly and concisely, so they prodded the reluctant Amsel into taking on teaching assignments. She remembers battling nerves and a woozy stomach the first few times she stood in front of a class. Now Amsel is recognized as among the best in the country.

The students who take her introductory statistics class aren't always wild about the subject matter -- it's a required course that many dread. "When I'm on an airplane or at a party and the person next to me asks what I do for a living, I know what's coming next," Amsel says of the winces the word 'statistics' tends to elicit. "'I hate stats,' they'll say, and I tell them, 'If only I had you in my class, I could change that.'

"Statistics is a whole way of thinking about problem solving. It's not like other maths with rigid structures. It's an art form. People will use statistics to try to pull the wool over your eyes. I'm trying to give my students the power to understand what other people will try to bamboozle them with."

Amsel has office hours every day and often brings in homebaked cookies. "I always have food in my office.

It gives students a reason to come in. If you're in a class of 400, it's pretty intimidating to raise your hand and say you didn't quite understand that last point." Sometimes, a little one-on-one is what's required.

"She really goes above and beyond," says Lear. Amsel provided a phone number to Lear's classmates the night before a major exam. "She checked her messages every 10 minutes and returned calls all night."

Amsel says she isn't a pushover or an easy marker, but she does have a soft spot for students having a hard time in spite of their best efforts. "For a student who isn't succeeding, but who is trying hard, I'll go all out."

After almost 30 years of teaching, Amsel says she still gets a charge out of it.

"It has to do with fostering curiosity. You help students learn to love learning and you know that's going to keep going on even after they leave the University."

Out, Out Damn Fruit

	ILLUSTRATION: Mark Lamarre

There's still a lot of mystery meat and jello, but grapefruit is definitely off McGill hospital menus. It seems both the fruit and juice have an effect on medications which causes increased concentrations of drugs in the blood.

Researchers in Canada first turned up signs of grapefruit-drug interaction in the mid-nineties. Since then, studies have shown that a substance in the fruit inhibits an enzyme system found in the small intestine that metabolizes pharmaceuticals prior to absorption into the bloodstream. The result is that levels of some medications - -- as much three to five times higher than intended -- are being absorbed. These high levels can cause nasty side effects.

The McGill University Health Centre hospitals instituted the ban last fall. Though not all medications are affected, MUHC Pharmaceutical Care associate director Sylvie Carle says it's better to be safe than sorry. "We have patients taking a lot of different drugs. It would be too difficult to say one person can have grapefruit while the person in the next bed can't."

The drugs affected may include those prescribed for allergies, elevated cholesterol, heart disease, high blood pressure, AIDS and schizophrenia.