Writer Ben Stein filed a lawsuit in...

Writer Ben Stein filed a lawsuit in L.A. Tuesday, claiming that a Carl’s Jr. commercial used a schoolteacher character he created in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

Stein described the vocal style of the character in the movie as “monotonous, nasal, repetitive, nerdy and slightly insane. . . .”

He thinks this was the first teacher to sound that way?

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is often in the news for directing such exploratory missions as the current photo-shoot of Venus by the Magellan spacecraft.

But some people still have the wrong idea about JPL. They assume the Pasadena agency’s name refers to jet aircraft, rather than to jet propulsion (the process by which rockets are powered).

“A while back we got an indignant letter from a woman in Orange County,” said George Alexander, a JPL spokesman. “She had felt a sonic boom and phoned the police and they told here it was probably made by a couple of jets. So she wrote us and said, ‘You scared my dogs. Why can’t you do things more quietly?’ ”

Moving from Venusians to Venetians: A workshop on “Writing About Sex,” scheduled to begin earlier this month, has been reset for 8 p.m. next Wednesday at the Beyond Baroque arts center in Venice. Just a slight case of classes interruptus.

Naturally, the subject of sex brings us to headaches.

A collection of paintings, photographs and prints illustrating headaches will throb at the Santa Monica Public Library Oct. 1-26.

The artists said they drew on their own personal suffering. John Crowley, for instance, attributed the inspiration for his painting (see photo) to a migraine that lasted three weeks.

We’re always stricken when we eat ice cream too fast.

For those of you who’d like to tell the bus company where to go:

The RTD says that Sunday is the deadline for entries in “People Moving L.A. in the ‘90s,” its public contest aimed at speeding up transportation in the region.

RTD Board President Nick Patsaouras said a panel of experts will forward the best 90 ideas to the agency responsible for implementation.

And what will the winners receive for relieving L.A. of its massive traffic congestion, clearing up L.A.’s smoggy skies and saving commuters thousands of hours?

A transit T-shirt and one RTD monthly pass.

A phone caller to the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Beverly Hills reports that, while he was on hold, he heard the strains of “Home, Home on the Range.”

miscelLAny:

The Viking’s Table in West L.A. is a Chinese restaurant.