It’s a Beastly Diet but Bunny’s Doing It for Peanuts

--Pam Rogers is not advocating Bunny’s diet for anybody else, but you can gauge the results yourself. Bunny’s lost 640 pounds in three years on a regimen of low-cal hay, a few push-ups, no monkey biscuits and fewer peanuts. Bunny, who is now a trim 7,200 pounds, is an elephant at Mesker Park Zoo in Evansville, Ind., and Rogers is her keeper. The weight problem, Rogers said, stemmed from Bunny’s life style. “A bored elephant will just eat hay and stand around swaying back and forth each day,” said Rogers, who added that the diet hasn’t been too hard on Bunny. Besides her bale and a half of hay and fewer peanuts, Bunny is limited to one soft drink a day. But Rogers said that it’s a low-sugar drink, to protect Bunny’s teeth from cavities. “But she still gets reprieves,” Rogers said. “Keepers bring her watermelons and bushels of peaches and pears.”

--Brent Earle of New York City bounded down the steps of City Hall to kick off his 10,000-mile run around the country to raise money and awareness in the fight against AIDS. Earle, 35, said he hopes to raise $10 million for community groups as well as AIDS victims. “Let it not be said that when friends were dying, we were sitting idle,” said Earle, a playwright-turned-athlete. Earle, who has seen seven friends die of the fatal disease, said that the memory of those friends will help sustain him on his 19-month show of strength. He plans to head north, first to Maine and then west to Vancouver, south to San Diego, east to Miami and back to New York. His mission, he said, is to educate America about acquired immune deficiency syndrome and to replace “panic and hysteria” with compassion. “Some people looked at me like I’m nuts,” Earle said. “But I tell them, maybe I am a little crazy but the point is I gotta do something. I’ll give it the best shot I’ve got.”

--The man seemed a natural for “The Last Great Race on Earth.” Armen Khatchikian said his occupation is mushing, and his hobby is adventure. What could be more fitting for the Alaskan 1,158-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Anchorage to Nome? While most members of the record 73 teams that set out into the icy wilderness this weekend have their thoughts on the finish line, Norman Vaughan, 81, said: “I’m glad to get to the starting line.” The 14th annual event, which is expected to last about 11 days, is a legacy of a race to save lives in 1925, when relays of dog sleds rushed diphtheria serum to Nome to combat an outbreak of the disease in the Bering Sea community. The first musher to arrive in Nome will collect $50,000.