Is Ringo Starr still performing?
– F.M., Torrance, Calif. Starr, who just turned 70, is one of the music industry’s most enduring performers. In January 2010, Starr released yet another album, titled “Y Not.” This summer, Ringo and his 11th All Starr Band are touring North America. Of course, 68-year-old Paul McCartney, the other living Beatle, is also still performing and recording albums. As a child, my mother would read to me before I was to go to sleep. I loved that bonding time we shared together. She liked to read books of poetry to me, and I recall one of the poems and one of the lines, “Where the cows go bong.” Do you recognize the line from any poem? – C.S., Newport News, Va. The poem is “On the Ning Nang Nong” by comedic poet Spike Milligan (1918-2002), who released it in his 1968 book of poetry, “Silly Verse for Kids.” In 1998, the poem was voted the U.K.’s favorite comic poem in a BBC poll, ahead of such poets as Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. The poem has only 17 lines. Here are a few: “On the Ning Nang N
