BEST BETS

When we woke up the other morning, all the ideas in our head had fled. Flown the coop. It was empty as a used-car salesman’s promise.

Not knowing what to do, we sat down and waited. But friends called or visited, and tried to engage us in weighty conversations about this and that. No dice.

“Uhh,” was all we could say.

One even had the gall to try and pick our brain about quarks.

“Hey, don’t get esoteric on us,” we said, and slammed the phone down.

All we could think about was Madonna, Bo Jackson and a Muzak version of “Lovely Rita.”

We were getting frustrated.

And a little bit frightened.

What if our ideas never came back? What if these were ideas whose time would never come?

We pulled our thinking cap from the closet, and it suddenly dawned on us: No big deal. There’s plenty more where they came from. Out there. The world was full of ideas and issues:

. . . David Daube speaking on “God or Goddess and Other Problems of Feminism in the Bible and Talmud” today at 7:30 p.m. at the University of Judaism, 15600 Mulholland Drive. Reservations required. For information call (213) 476-9777.

. . . And Norma and Bill Libaw discussing “Our Earth Trek: From the Animal Kingdom to the Human Estate” at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Beverly Hills Library, 444 N. Rexford Drive. For information call (213) 271-3254.

. . . Or the Lesbian and Gay Rights Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union holding a meeting on “The Oppression of Gays and Lesbians in the Soviet Union” at the Highland Grounds Coffee House, 742 N. Highland Ave., at 7 p.m. Thursday. For information call (213) 385-5585.

. . . And finally, Richard McCormick leading a discussion on “The Impact of Vatican II: Moral Theology” at 9 a.m. Saturday at Mount St. Mary’s College, 10 Chester Place. For information call (213) 746-0450.