THE STRUGGLE

Is the Miss America contest already in the bag? No. But according to semi-official prognosticator George Miller, a retired Northern Illinois statistics professor, the contest’s already in the byte. Miller said Monday that his computer-generated winning prediction for the Miss America crown, to be awarded on NBC on Saturday, is . . . Miss Arkansas, Patti Thorn. Miller, who has picked five of the last nine winners with his number-crunching, said that Thorn is a 7-to-1 favorite for the title--but hedged his bets. “The rest have a genuine chance of winning, too,” he added. The statistical norm for Miss Americas, according to Miller--age: 21; height: 5-foot-8; eyes: green; hair: blond. Thorn is a little older (23); a little shorter (5-foot-7), has blue eyes--and blond hair.