Staffers at the Los Angeles Times are giggling about a morale booster that managing editor Doug Frantz perpetrated in the midday heat downtown today: pony rides for the Metro staff. Here's his note that went out this morning:

The happiness of the editors in the California section is never far from my mind. I know you are all working hard, and that the demands from reporters and higher-ranking editors makes it feel sometimes like you're squeezed in a demented vice [sic].

Last week, a small group of you provided me with a list of suggestions for making your lives better. Some of them were outlandish, of course, and we will not be paying for any trips to Hawaii. Others were reasonable, or close enough.

I plan to start fulfilling some of the less outlandish ones, beginning at 12:30 today and continuing for about an hour. Please join me, and feel free to bring your reporters, at that time in the construction lot at Second and Broadway.

An email correspondent who ventured outside writes, "You get on the horse and get led around in a circle for about 30 seconds." I'm sure everybody is happier now.

Tuesday update: Reuters covers the lunch-hour rides.