Donkey

--This is the week that Eric DeWilde, the penniless orphan, becomes an independently wealthy adult. Three years ago, having run away from home in Hollywood, Fla., after a scolding by his aunt, he found a sack alongside railroad tracks where he was walking. Inside were jewels worth $346,800. Police were notified, but no one ever claimed the bag. Most of the 76 unset diamonds, rings, bracelets and brooches the teen-ager found were auctioned off last year by Christie's in New York.

There are four ways to get to this tiny settlement high in the mountains of Tajikistan: You can travel by foot, donkey or horse, but the fastest, most reliable way is to go by Goat. The Goat--or Kozyol--is not the four-legged kind, but a four-wheel-drive. It is an affectionate Russian nickname for a gritty, go-anywhere, Soviet-designed jeep as reliable as it is ugly.

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.

One of the frustrating aspects of my job is that our paper's quite admirable restrictions on the use of certain vulgar or obscene words prohibit me from using very funny stories that readers often send me. I myself do not like obscene words and use them only when their absence would leave a blank. Even then, of course, some words may not be used, but one forgoes them reluctantly.

QUESTION: I recently bought a plant that the nursery person told me was called "baby's tears." It was growing in a clump of tiny, round, green leaves it looked almost like a leafy moss--and had delicate little trailing vines all around the pot. I followed the care instructions--bright light, lots of water, daily misting (it didn't last long enough for the monthly fertilizing!), but the plant just dried up and died within a couple of weeks.

Five cities in predominantly minority sections of Los Angeles County have been ranked among the poorest communities in the nation by a Chicago-based urbanologist whose survey has come under fire by local demographers and city officials. The 23-page report on the 60 wealthiest and 15 poorest U.S. suburbs, prepared by Roosevelt University professor Pierre deVise, shows per capita yearly income for Cudahy, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park, Compton and South El Monte ranging from $5,170 to $7,100.

Among the pleasures of  "Wreck-it- Ralph," the Disney animated movie that has opened to strong reviews  this weekend, is watching a history of video games flash before you (and, perhaps, your own history along with it). There are prominent references to contemporary first-person shooters like "Call of Duty" (here called "Hero's Duty"). But most of the fun comes with nods to titles from video games' early days. The most obvious of them involves the title character, who is situated in "Fix-it Felix," a game clearly inspired by "Donkey Kong.

The Blind Donkey Where: 53 E. Union St., Pasadena When: 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily Price: Whiskey, $5 to $48; burgers, sandwiches, snacks, $3 to $10 Info: (626) 792-1833; http://www.theblinddonkey.com

Unfortunately, these are real donkeys, not computer-generated ones voiced by Eddie Murphy, stubbornly getting out of the way of France's Benoit Rousselot's truck during the third stage of the Dakar Rally on Monday in Morocco.

Where in the world would I rather be than where I am today? In the British Virgin Islands, of course, docked at Trellis Bay off Tortola and listening to the bray of old Chocolate. Chocolate is an amiable donkey who hangs around a dockside eatery called the Last Resort. When the piano music gets loud or the laughter is high, she sticks her head through an open window and joins in the fun. I liked seeing her silly face across the room as I went through the buffet line with other yacht dwellers.