Shockingly Real: A woman reading a novel...

Shockingly Real: A woman reading a novel by Stephen King had an experience straight from a horror tale. Lightning struck Jennifer Roberts, 23, as she was reading “The Dead Zone” while camping with her husband, Brad, in southeastern Australia. Roberts said he watched Friday as the bolt entered his wife’s body through her watchband and burned a trail down to her toes. She was hospitalized in good condition. “The scariest part was the feeling that my body had swelled up . . . and was about to explode,” said Roberts. The bolt seared the book, which on the cover has a picture of a man being struck by lightning.

* Around the Corner: Erector sets and push-up bras will be in in 1992, and the lowly hot dog will become a “haute” dog, “The American Forecaster Almanac 1992” predicts. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will run out of steam, bodybuilding will lose its mainstream following, and the ranks of environmentalists will shrink, says the book’s author, Kim Long. And watch out: Fashions from 25 years ago--platform shoes, high-top canvas tennis shoes and long, straight hair for women--all are coming back.

* Another Milestone: Sir Edmund Hillary, who conquered Mt. Everest with Tenzing Norgay of Nepal in 1953, says he’s pleased at being chosen to grace New Zealand’s new five-dollar bill but thinks that honor should wait until after he dies. “I pointed out I was not quite in that condition yet,” says Hillary, 72. “I will have to be respectable for the rest of my life.”

* Making Time: The keepers of the Doomsday Clock are tuning back the clock. The new setting, to reflect the decreased threat of global nuclear war, will appear in the December issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The clock reflects how far the editors think the world is from nuclear disaster. The timepiece has stood at 11:50 p.m. since the March, 1990, issue, when it was moved back from 11:54 p.m. to reflect relaxations of tensions in Eastern Europe and Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms. The journal will not reveal how far back the hands will go this time.