In Rome, Bishop Alfonso Carinci said his 27,800th Mass, then went home to mark the day with a quiet celebration. In Manhattan. Methodist Bishop Herbert Welch walked three blocks to his polling place to vote, then went home to prepare his speech for a party in his honor at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The two sturdy bishops--the oldest in their faiths--were both 100 years old.

Jouncing along in turbulent air at 28,000 ft., the Paris-to-Rome Caravelle jet flew into a vicious downdraft over the Apuane Alps, plummeted sickeningly before the pilot regained control. A stewardess was knocked unconscious and six passengers who had failed to fasten their seat belts were battered against the bulkhead. Among the most seriously injured: Italian Movie Producer Carlo Ponti, 48, husband-in-fact (if not by law) of Cinemactress Sophia Loren, 28, whose badly cut right ear required 14 emergency stitches and 45 extra ones in plastic surgery. "Frightening," said Ponti, his head turbaned in bandages. "Luckily, Sophia wasn't on board."

Accepting his humptyninth award--the MacDowell Colony Medal from the Academy of American Poets--white-maned Poet Robert Frost, 88, fixed his affectionate audience with a mock-sincere twinkle in his eye and quite clearly said: "I wish my mother could see me now."

In the Wonderland of Manhattan's Four Seasons restaurant, seven precocious Alices tucked their curves into kiddie clothes at ex-Showgirl Gregg Sherwood Dodge's Thank Heaven for Little Girls fashion show to raise money for her pet charity--Girls' Town, U.S.A.--an as yet unbuilt Florida home for "abandoned" girls from ten to 18 years old. Onto a makeshift stage pranced such moppets as Actresses Susan Kohner, 25, Susan Strasberg, 24, and Tisha Sterling, 17, daughter of Actress Ann Sothern; then came a formation of New York-Rome jet setlets, led by Harper's Bazaar playgirl Christina Paolozzi, 22. All licked huge lollipops and cracked their bubblegum.

The sunset-pink gown was smashing all right, but it was Princess Margaret's new hairdo that set the crowd at London's glittering Dockland Settlements Ball atwitter. Obviously inspired by some Grecian yearn, it was swept abruptly back from her forehead and fixed with jewel-studded pins above and behind her ears. The effect was a kind of outsized ponytail with the ends curled back along Meg's shapely neck. "It can't be all her," whispered one Lady, smelling a royal rat. "Of course it's not," said another. Only her hairdresser knew for sure.

Under the discerning eyes of such distinguished beauty spotters as Comedian Bob Hope and Mrs. Jenifer Armstrong-Jones, Tony's stepmother, eight fetching finalists paraded in London for the title of Miss World. Chosen: Catharina Ladders, 20, a green-eyed, 37-23-37, brunette fashion model from Holland. Said Catharina modestly: "I don't think I'm the most beautiful girl in the world . . . I am the most beautiful girl here."

"An alcohol-free way of life is the best way of life," insisted Mrs. T. Roy Jarrett, 62, a Methodist minister's wife from Richmond, Va., who was elected President of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The W.W.C.T.U. was holding its 22nd triennial convention in New Delhi, India, and President Jarrett soon found that there was work to do. She was going to Jaipur to help her colleagues snuff out that city's consumption of potent jag mohan (110-proof) and gulabi (rose petal liquor). Her substitute for the boozy brews: "a creative recreation program for young people which will enable them to know what beverage alcohol is and what it does."

Ill lay: Robert Montgomery, 58, actor and television producer, and Brigadier General David Sarnoff, 71, RCA board chairman, both in good condition after being parted from their gall bladders in separate Manhattan hospitals.

The sixth-place St. Louis Cardinals might be in need of new ideas, but hardly the kind served up by newly hired Consultant Branch Rickey, 80. The old Mahatma's idea--to retire Stan ("The Man") Musial, 41--produced such a roar that Club President August A. Busch Jr., 63, felt compelled to soothe the outraged fans. With a .330 batting average last season, Stan will stay as long as he likes, said Brewer Busch, and when he wants to quit he has a job as a Cardinal vice president. In St. Petersburg. Fla., sharpening up young hitters, Stan was imperturbable. "I won't retire, not in the shape I am in and hitting the ball the way I did this season. If the Cardinals don't want me, I know of some other clubs that do."

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