Baltimore, Md. -- A dimly lit, smoke-filled hole-in-the-wall Irish pub hardly seems like the place to meet a wonderfully exotic, insightful woman. But I guess that’s why so many men pile into these cozy coffins of gin and sin and filth and grime . . . the hope for something better.

And there she was, right next to me.

Long, dark, wavy hair. Fair, fine skin drawn taut over her high cheekbones set right under her almond-shaped eyes of a dark, brooding brown.

Her name was Vess. She was from Bulgaria.

Here only a month, her accent was to die for and her smile when I said I wrote about alternative vehicles said only one thing . . .

“Electric cars are really popular in Bulgaria.”

Oh whoopity doo.

Once again, a victim of circumstance.

Heaven forbid she fall for my writing instead of my topic, but no.

It seems once a person hears I write about electric cars, any hope of conversation about anything else becomes as unrealistic as peace in the Middle East.

It’s no wonder though. Europe is big on these things.

With gas going for above $5 a gallon, a vehicle that amounts to nothing more than a niche-filler in the U.S. sells like hotcakes across the pond.

And that’s what leads me to the lesson for this week.

When it comes to alternative energy, what America doesn’t always get right away, the rest of the world does, so invest accordingly.

In Israel, the number of hybrids sold up to July 22 of this year was more than double the amount sold in all of 2006.

In miniscule Abu Dhabi, located smack dab in the richest oil exporting region of the world, Khalid Abdullah Al Bu Ainnain, Chairman of Baynuna, told Gulf News in an interview that his group has signed a deal with France’s Dassault to receive 10,000 electric cars.

And in Germany, Porsche is preparing a hybrid version of their Cayenne while American automakers wail over inefficient batteries.

All of these moves towards hybrid vehicles still don’t overshadow the rest of the world’s willingness to accept smaller, all-electric cars.

From India to England, Smart Cars, ZAP cars and now compressed air powered/electric cars are taking the world by storm.

So while you may hear a lot from GM, congressional talking heads and other naysayers about the timetable of the cars to come . . . what we can’t make, the rest of the world already does.

Keep your hopes in the future but your sense in the present . . .

Field Palmer