On This Date in 1948: Cat Stevens, currently known as Yusuf Islam, is born Steven Demetre Georgiou in London, the son of a Swedish mother and a Greek Cypriot father.

The Almanac Advises for July 21: "A newborn cat must be engaged with interaction as soon as possible. Handling a kitten constantly and carefully will aid in its intellectual and social development among humans."

'Tea for the Tillerman,' by Cat Stevens

It's a little bitty thing, barely a minute long, but it packs a sneaky wallop. The handpicked theme song of Ricky Gervais' brilliant HBO series 'Extras,' which just came out in a DVD box set, is the title track to the fourth album by the man then known as Cat Stevens.

The song is a benediction with regrets, perfectly suited to the show's ultimate theme: that vanity in the pursuit of celebrity is a kind of disease, and real joy can only come from purer motives. The future Yusuf Islam makes weird offerings -- tea for the tillerman, OK, but steak for the sun? Even as the sinners sin, he marvels, the children still play. Then the song erupts, however briefly, into a full-on gospel chorus celebrating "that happy day." (The song and album came out in 1970, a year after Oakland's Edwin Hawkins Singers hit the pop Top Ten with the gospel hymn 'Oh Happy Day.')