Donkey

There's been a shake-up at "Shrek the Musical" as it prepares for its Broadway opening. The mammoth DreamWorks musical based on the Oscar-winning animated film and the characters in William Steig's book will have a new Donkey when it begins preview performances Nov. 8 at the Broadway Theatre. Daniel Breaker, a Tony nominee for his performance last season in "Passing Strange," will take over the role played by Chester Gregory during the show's recent Seattle tryout. Gregory has been seen most recently on Broadway in "Cry-Baby" and has appeared in "Tarzan" and "Hairspray" as well.

When Mara Baygulova first laid eyes on the "zonkey" 13 years ago in Shadow Hills, she knew she had to have the rare equine — a zebra-donkey hybrid. Lucky for her, the owner did not know what he had, Baygulova said, and she ended up getting for free what could have cost thousands of dollars. "He didn't know her value," she said. Baygulova grew up with a donkey named Mona Lisa and had promised her son, Andreas, one just like hers. On his 5th birthday, she presented him with the zonkey instead.

A wild donkey rescued by a federal program and adopted by Centennial Farm at the Orange County Fairgrounds soon will give birth. Sugar, a 4-year-old white burro, is expected to deliver the farm's first donkey foal in mid-October after an 11-month pregnancy. She was acquired through the federal Bureau of Land Management, which rounds up wild horses and donkeys that proliferate too quickly. When Sugar was rescued in 1995, she was with an inbred foal that later died.

Mark Meyers hasn't slept for more than a day and his back is killing him, but he still has to wrangle a donkey who refuses to exit its horse trailer after a 2,500-mile flight from Kona, Hawaii. Dozens more wait behind it. So Meyers pops an 800-milligram ibuprofen and gets down to work. First he starts pushing, but then he tries sweet-talking the beast. "Come on, girl!" he says. "Come and see your new home!" Finally the jenny clambers down. She lifts her gray head and begins braying loudly.

A buckskin-clad man who says there are too many "nuts and flakes" in Southern California passed through Grants Pass on Monday with his wife and two donkeys on a trek toward a new life. Three Feathers Reed and Canary Kate Reed, dressed in the traditional clothing of the pioneers, are on their way from San Bernardino, Calif., to Yamhill, Ore. Three Feathers compared the Southland to a cereal bowl full of "nuts and flakes."

When Mara Baygulova first laid eyes on the "zonkey" 13 years ago in Shadow Hills, she knew she had to have the rare equine — a zebra-donkey hybrid. Lucky for her, the owner did not know what he had, Baygulova said, and she ended up getting for free what could have cost thousands of dollars. "He didn't know her value," she said. Baygulova grew up with a donkey named Mona Lisa and had promised her son, Andreas, one just like hers. On his 5th birthday, she presented him with the zonkey instead.

Re "Congress closes with a pork-filled flourish," Dec. 21 Evidently, whether you peel an elephant or a donkey, you get pork. ERIC KLAPPER Los Angeles

In "Shrek Forever After," the latest edition of DreamWorks' billion-dollar animated franchise, we find the much-domesticated ogre in the midst of a major midlife meltdown. But hot cars and hotter babes won't soothe this savage beast — he's just looking to get his angry back. As it happens, middle-aged angst suits Shrek and the movie quite well. After the blahs of 2007's "Shrek the Third," "Forever After" comes back with more heart and much of the kick-in-the-pop-culture-keister cleverness that made the greenish brute such a breath of fresh air when "Shrek" first blew into town nearly a decade ago. Allegedly the "final chapter" — though it feels about as final as a Cher farewell tour — the film's usual suspects are back too with Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas reprising Shrek, Fiona, Donkey and Puss in Boots (for those of you who really have been far, far away)

Tomorrow is Epiphany, the day, as tradition has it, that the Magi arrived in Bethlehem and beheld the child of Mary and Joseph. This means that they were still there, sharing the stable with their donkey, which in manger scenes is usually depicted as humility and sweetness incarnate. I never used to question the accuracy of that rendering. Then I got a donkey and learned that they have many fine traits, but that the humility of the critters has nothing to do with it.

Ordinarily, any Chuck Knox-Buddy Ryan choice would seem simple enough--an NFL institution hewn in granite vs. a megalomaniacal donkey's posterior who fell to earth when his grip on Mike Ditka's apron strings went slack. However, if John Shaw is unable to extricate his nose from his jammed cash register drawer--or Buddy Ryan's lips from his cold mirror--then I suppose they deserve each other. TRACE A. DIBBLE Orange

Bugaboo, the brand that introduced the $800 stroller to America, has put a new model on the market that can retail for as much as $1,659. It is called the Donkey and no, it doesn't walk your baby by itself, or work by remote control, or carry enough water to last three days in the desert. It doesn't even claim to be safer than other strollers. What it does do is convert from a very fancy single stroller into a side-by-side double and back again. And despite the price, people are lining up to buy it. "It's expensive, but the price point was what we expected to pay for the quality and the durability," said Billy Kobayashi, a father of one with another on the way, while picking up his family's Donkey at the Bugaboo store in El Segundo.

The following is a blog documenting two Los Angeles Times editors' attempts to lose weight.  It all began on Jan. 10 . The NFL playoffs.  In the past, that would mean a big excuse for me to indulge (actually any day would qualify). Tailgating or going to a friend’s house means a ton of food and drink. We were professional tailgaters at the former Mile High in Denver: the grill, the bar, the sombrero-wearing donkey, we had everything.  (Well, we never actually had the donkey, although we thought it would be funny)

In "Shrek Forever After," the latest edition of DreamWorks' billion-dollar animated franchise, we find the much-domesticated ogre in the midst of a major midlife meltdown. But hot cars and hotter babes won't soothe this savage beast — he's just looking to get his angry back. As it happens, middle-aged angst suits Shrek and the movie quite well. After the blahs of 2007's "Shrek the Third," "Forever After" comes back with more heart and much of the kick-in-the-pop-culture-keister cleverness that made the greenish brute such a breath of fresh air when "Shrek" first blew into town nearly a decade ago. Allegedly the "final chapter" — though it feels about as final as a Cher farewell tour — the film's usual suspects are back too with Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas reprising Shrek, Fiona, Donkey and Puss in Boots (for those of you who really have been far, far away)

Now that both parties have candidates running for governor, Californians are sure to hear a bit of conventional wisdom about state politics: Voters typically elect Democrats to the Legislature but Republicans to the governorship. Like so much conventional wisdom, it's dead wrong, or at least seriously misleading. For the last 15 years, California voters have, for good or ill, shown a remarkably consistent preference for Democrats. Sure, we have a Republican governor, but that says more about Arnold Schwarzenegger -- he is an exception to almost every rule -- than it does about the GOP generally.

He hanged himself in a room above a donkey stall. He lived there with his new wife; he will not know the child she carries inside her; never again will he work the summer fields, walk home along the canal at dusk with his brother. He didn't leave a note. He could write no more than his name. Others were left to tell the short story of Samir Asar, a man of no consequence beyond this village, who sought a life he couldn't find, a life the Nile Delta refused to grant him. Winter light slants through the open door and shines on a platter of rice his mother, Fawzeya, balances on her lap, picking out chaff and smoothing.

Presidential candidate Ramazan Bashardost was on a routine campaign stop in the eastern Afghan city of Khowst one day last month when he heard a thunderous explosion. Then another. And another. "It was very loud, and pretty close, and I of course understood right away what was happening," said Bashardost, one of nearly 40 contenders in the Aug. 20 presidential vote. On that day, insurgents had attacked Khowst's provincial police headquarters and several other sites, triggering hours of chaotic street fighting.

I Am Never Lost By Cameron, 9 St. Margaret's Episcopal School Laguna Hills My father is the song of spring. His voice brings new life to me. Every time he speaks, daisies spring from my soul, golden from the sweetness of his heart. His love is sweet-scented as lemons growing in the gardens of God. And though I stride in the lonely forest of life, I am never lost. -- My Dad Is Donkey Delicious By Gabi, 9 Pegasus School Huntington Beach My dad is donkey delicious, sweet as salad on a hot day. Hot chocolate toasty on cold days.

Zycher speaks from the ivory tower. He wanted to fix up the mess with theory and debate, weapons which had, until now, proven useless. Because 103 has passed and the ball is rolling, they may work. The insurance beast is a donkey with the head of an insurance man, the belly of a politician, and the back end of a lawyer. He pulls your cart to market and he has been getting slower and slower, eating more and more. Your eggs are spoiling and the donkey has stopped again to eat 18% more hay. What can you do?

With 75 pounds of military gear cinched on her furry back, Annie was stubborn the whole way. The two Marines assigned to her pushed, pulled and sweet-talked her up the steep, twisting trail on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. "C'mon, girl, you can make it," Lance Cpl. Chad Campbell whispered in her ear. "Only one more hill," promised Lance Cpl. Cameron Cross as he shoved Annie's muscular hindquarters.

The none-too-convincing point of Graham Ratliff's "Growing Out" seems to be that if a nerdy wannabe folkie withstands some uninspired shenanigans in a creaky, dark old house, he will gain self-confidence -- and might win the girl as well. Tom, a shy, struggling songwriter-guitarist (Michael Hampton), takes a job as a caretaker at a rundown Victorian.