Recently, I discovered a lovely documentary that compiles unknown stories of The Beatles. “Beatles Stories” (2011) is a beautiful collection of memories of those who stood besides, behind or on the stage with the Fab Four.
One of the stories I deeply enjoyed was about Ringo’s star.
It starts like this: Brian Skiff, an astronomer from Arizona and a part-time Beatles fan named an asteroid, located between Mars and Jupiter, after Ringo Starr.
This was highly covered in the media of the time and, one day, the astronomer got an anonymous envelope in the mail, that traveled all the way from England. Once he opened it up, he realized it wasn’t an ordinary letter:
“Hi Bri.
This is just a short notice to thank you for naming that lump of rock “Ringo”.
It gives me great pleasure to think that there’s something in the heavens that will be rolling on after I’m gone.
Next time, could you make it a planet, or a sun, or a moon, or a galaxy, or, if you are not too busy, maybe a black hole!
Kind regards,
Ringo”
