*Styron’s choice: Novelist William Styron says that...

*Styron’s choice: Novelist William Styron says that in 1986 he almost joined the ranks of such authors as Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf and Jack London who have committed suicide. Styron wrote in December’s Vanity Fair that he “used alcohol as the magical conduit to fantasy and euphoria, and to the enhancement of the imagination.” But in 1985, he said, his body suddenly rejected alcohol, and he grew depressed. After going so far as to redraft his will and to pen a suicide note, Styron checked himself into a hospital for treatment and regained his will to live.

* Split: The wife of former New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange says her husband has left her for his speech writer, and Naomi Lange wants the speech writer’s identity known. “The point is he’s gone off because of Margaret Pope,” Mrs. Lange said in a newspaper interview. “Society is totally sick when people rob other people’s husbands, and I think Margaret Pope’s name should be exposed.” Lange had said in a two-line statement that he had separated from his wife, whom he married in London in 1968.

* Leavin’ on a jet plane: Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, flew out of Hong Kong Monday, ending what could be the last royal visit to the British colony before China resumes sovereignty in 1997.

* Early Thanksgiving: A post-campaign television commercial by New Jersey Gov.-elect James Florio may prompt a few double takes. There’s no campaign rhetoric this time, just a simple word of thanks. In the ad, a beaming Florio tells voters he appreciates the landslide victory they gave him last week over Republican James Courter.