An REM-related aha moment

A bit of an aha moment just now, looking at jaime morrison’s post about Polynesian stick charts, which includes the arrangement shown here. The aha arises from the fact that this very arrangement was used in the sleeve artwork for Lifes Rich Pageant, the fourth R.E.M. album, from 1986 — not even prominently used, on the front cover or anything, but knocked back behind the text on the inner sleeve (on the vinyl sleeve), and tucked away, still knocked back behind text in the CD artwork. So, how sad am I to even notice this?
Years and years ago, I actually had a stab at recreating this very stick pattern, without ever knowing what use it was. Truly, you learn something every day.

(via Pruned, without whose prompting this aha moment would have passed me by)