What is on the cover of R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People album?

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QUESTION: What is on the cover of R.E.M.’s Automatic For The People album?

R.E.M.’s 1992 album Automatic For The People is considered by many to be their best, featuring classic songs such as Nightswimming and Everybody Hurts. Its cover features a black-and-white photograph of a star-shaped Neo-Lectra neon sign that once hung above the Sinbad Motel in Miami, Florida, near Criteria Studios where most of the album was recorded.

The Neo-Lectra signs were designed and manufactured in the 1960s by Jim Henry of Oklahoma Neon, in Tulsa. The metal ‘stars’ featured six spikes and resembled the Sputnik satellite; cashing in on the 1960s space craze as well as America’s love of neon signage. The Neo-Lectra were advertised as having a ‘scintillating’ flashing action.

The Sinbad Motel became a well-known landmark after it opened its doors in 1953. It was designed by renowned architect Tony Sherman to resemble a boat.

R.E.M.’s 1992 album Automatic For The People is considered by many to be their best, featuring classic songs such as Everybody Hurts

Its cover features a black-and-white photograph of a star-shaped Neo-Lectra neon sign that once hung above the Sinbad Motel in Miami, Florida, near Criteria Studios where the album was recorded

The album title 'automatic for the people' came from the motto of a restaurant called Weaver D's Delicious Fine Foods

Before R.E.M’s album was even released in October 1992, the sign had gone. In August 1992, Hurricane Andrew swept through Miami. It caused extensive damage to the motel and destroyed the star.

R.E.M. came from Athens, Georgia, and the enigmatic album title came from the motto of a restaurant called Weaver D’s Delicious Fine Foods. Dexter Weaver’s ‘soul-food’ restaurant is still there and he still uses the phrase instead of saying ‘You’re welcome’.

Tom Greenwood, Cirencester, Glos.

QUESTION: Which computer was the first hand-held one?

Adam Osborne’s Osborne 1, released in 1981, is sometimes given this accolade. It was technically an all-in-one portable computer. Users got a five-inch screen, modem port, 64kb of memory and a battery pack.

However, the Osborne 1 weighed a whopping 24lb. Designer Lee Felsenstein later said that carrying two of them ‘nearly pulled my arms out of their sockets’.

Therefore, a better bet might be the Seiko Epson HX-20, released in July 1982. It was the first notebook-sized portable computer, occupying roughly the footprint of an A4 piece of paper. It could be held in one hand, weighed 3.5lb (1.6kg) and could fit inside a briefcase.

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The Kyocera/Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100, a notebook-sized portable computer introduced in April 1983, was the first commercially successful notebook. It weighed 3.1lb, boasted 32kb of memory and sold more than six million units. It wasn’t very powerful; 32kb would be roughly akin to 30-35 pages of typed text.

Tim Samuels, Norwich, Norfolk.

QUESTION: What are the origins of apartheid?

Apartheid was the system of institutionalised racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa. The word comes from an Afrikaans word meaning ‘separateness’, literally ‘apart-hood’ (from the Afrikaans suffix -heid).

It was coined in a religious rather than political context by an Afrikaner clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), Jan Christoffel du Plessis.

Du Plessis was a missionary who worked closely with black members of the DRC in the Orange Free State province. He was disillusioned with the way missionaries encouraged Africans to give up their culture and adopt European lifestyles and habits. His ‘apartheid’ was to encourage black people to embrace religion through their own cultural context.

When the Afrikaner National Party, which co-opted the term as a political slogan during the election, came to power in 1948, they began to formalise and expand racial segregation through the apartheid laws of Dr Hendrik Verwoerd.

Anti-apartheid demonstrators protest in Soweto, South Africa in 1989

These laws classified South Africans into racial groups, restricted the movement and rights of non-white people and enforced segregation in all aspects of life including education, healthcare and public facilities.

The key policies were the Population Registration Act (1950) which classified South Africans into racial groups, the Group Areas Act (1950) which assigned different racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas, the Bantu Education Act (1953) which created separate and inferior education systems for black South Africans, and various Pass Laws, which forced black South Africans to carry passbooks to restrict their movement.

Apartheid continued until the early 1990s when internal resistance, international pressure and negotiations led to its dismantling and the establishment of a democratic South Africa in 1994.

Dr K. E. Simms, London SE12.

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