* Big Bird: She was Miss America...

* Big Bird: She was Miss America in 1971. Twenty years later, Phyllis George is the queen of chicken. “I’ve always made the comment that I’d be in perfume, jewelry, clothing. But chicken?” she said recently in Lexington, Ky. “I still have to pinch myself--’What business are you in?’ ” The former CBS broadcaster introduced her By George chicken in Kentucky four years ago after concocting recipes in her kitchen. She turns 42 today.

* Like Father, Unlike Daughter: While Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher was giving a recent commencement speech at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, his daughter Diane, a psychiatrist, was giving one at neighboring Pitzer College. She caught her audience with her opening: “Dad and I had breakfast this morning. We had a look at each other’s speeches. He would have used mine, but he’s not a lesbian. I would have used his, but I am not a Republican.”

* Six-Century Hiatus: King Harald V, the first Norwegian-born monarch to assume the throne in 621 years, was blessed Sunday in Oslo in a formal church service reminiscent of a coronation. Harald, 54, became the third king of modern Norway upon the death of his father, British-born King Olav V, on Jan 17. “Bless King Harald V. Give him strength and wisdom,” said Bishop Finn Wagle as the monarch and his wife, Queen Sonja, kneeled at the church’s altar.

* Stuffy No More: The publication of ancient erotic images of homosexual and heterosexual couples in the stuffy journal Biblical Archeology Review has sparked a furor. The images were printed in the July-August issue despite protests from readers who were asked in advance if they wanted the images published. “If these finds were a part of life back then, our readers should be informed of them,” editor Hershel Shanks said in a statement. “On the other hand, our magazine is also used . . . in Sunday schools, so we felt our readers should have a voice in the decision.”