No tea for YOU, Mr. Tillerman

A plane from London to the United States was diverted to Maine when it was discovered that the cloying 1970s folksinger Cat Stevens was aboard. Stevens was given the opportunity to wander off into the wild world of central Maine, but remembered there’s a lot of bad out there, so he opted instead to return to London, saying he wanted to “just relax and take it easy.”

Stevens is on a Homeland Security list of aging folksingers who aren’t allowed in the country because of a Patriot Act ban on “overly syrupy, stupor inducing artists whose work can deaden public alertness toward suspicious actions or persons.” Others on the list include Gordon Lightfoot, David Gates, Seals and Crofts, Jim Croce (who has actually been dead since 1975), and (ironically) the lite-rock group America.