In the way musical shows used to be fine-tuned in New Haven before opening on Broadway, children's Masses sometimes are used to try out liturgical innovations before they're foisted on the rest of the parish.

Susan Benofy writes in Adoremus Bulletin that "adaptations intended only for young children [are promoted] to accommodate adults seeking 'progressive' liturgies."

The Directory for Masses with Children, the special Eucharistic Prayers and Lectionary for Masses with Children were all approved with the understanding that they would help young children understand and participate in the Mass.

Yet from the beginning, these special adaptations for children have been promoted for adult congregations. Why? It is by now evident that some progressive liturgists view the limited permission to make changes in the Mass for young children as a means of "creatively" changing ordinary celebrations.

Does this mean the grownups of St. Joseph's Parish in Shreveport, La., can expect to find themselves one day worshiping at a Mortimer Snerd Mass?

Elsewhere in puppetry: A scrapbook on Professor Charles Mack, the American Punchman for whom Charlie McCarthy was named, is among the treasures at this Punch site devoted to the world-famous puppet.

So is the dialogue from a 1921 Boston Traveler cartoon:

The exhausted Punch says:

"Poor Judy, Poor Judy, Poor Judy, Poor Judy, Poor Judy, Poor Judy, Poor Judy, Poor Judy..."

Judy, from the mouth of the Crocodile, screams:

"Help, Help, Help, Help, Help, Help, Help, Help, Help, Help, Help, Help..."

Punch does some whacking in this animated clip.

Pages of historic Punch postcards from English seaside resorts and of other Punch memorabilia are included in this remarkably comprehensive Punch and Judy site.

Punch and Papabile?

The late Punch Magazine lives on as an online archive that sells and licenses copies of its vintage cartoons.

The history of the old Punch is described at the Victorian Web and deconstructed at Vassar.

And while on the topic of British comic institutions: The Children's Bookshop, Hay on Wye, has Rupert annuals going back to 1936.