diff -r d1cbf0347eb4 -r c43e264256e4 Doc/whatsnew/3.2.rst
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.2.rst	Fri Mar 25 22:06:04 2011 +0100
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.2.rst	Fri Mar 25 22:15:57 2011 +0100
@@ -1499,11 +1499,11 @@
 >>> os.fsencode(filename)
 b'Sehensw\xc3\xbcrdigkeiten'
 
-Some operating systems allow direct access to the unencoded bytes in the
+Some operating systems allow direct access to encoded bytes in the
 environment.  If so, the :attr:`os.supports_bytes_environ` constant will be
 true.
 
-For direct access to unencoded environment variables (if available),
+For direct access to encoded environment variables (if available),
 use the new :func:`os.getenvb` function or use :data:`os.environb`
 which is a bytes version of :data:`os.environ`.
 
diff -r d1cbf0347eb4 -r c43e264256e4 Lib/email/header.py
--- a/Lib/email/header.py	Fri Mar 25 22:06:04 2011 +0100
+++ b/Lib/email/header.py	Fri Mar 25 22:15:57 2011 +0100
@@ -66,9 +66,15 @@
     otherwise a lower-case string containing the name of the character set
     specified in the encoded string.
 
+    header may be a string that may or may not contain RFC2047 encoded words,
+    or it may be a Header object.
+
     An email.errors.HeaderParseError may be raised when certain decoding error
     occurs (e.g. a base64 decoding exception).
     """
+    # If it is a Header object, we can just return the chunks.
+    if hasattr(header, '_chunks'):
+        return list(header._chunks)
     # If no encoding, just return the header with no charset.
     if not ecre.search(header):
         return [(header, None)]
diff -r d1cbf0347eb4 -r c43e264256e4 Lib/test/test_email/test_email.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_email/test_email.py	Fri Mar 25 22:06:04 2011 +0100
+++ b/Lib/test/test_email/test_email.py	Fri Mar 25 22:15:57 2011 +0100
@@ -3925,6 +3925,20 @@
         h.append(x, errors='replace')
         eq(str(h), e)
 
+    def test_escaped_8bit_header(self):
+        x = b'Ynwp4dUEbay Auction Semiar- No Charge \x96 Earn Big'
+        x = x.decode('ascii', 'surrogateescape')
+        h = Header(x, charset=email.charset.UNKNOWN8BIT)
+        self.assertEqual(str(h),
+                        'Ynwp4dUEbay Auction Semiar- No Charge \uFFFD Earn Big')
+        self.assertEqual(email.header.decode_header(h), [(x, 'unknown-8bit')])
+
+    def test_modify_returned_list_does_not_change_header(self):
+        h = Header('test')
+        chunks = email.header.decode_header(h)
+        chunks.append(('ascii', 'test2'))
+        self.assertEqual(str(h), 'test')
+
     def test_encoded_adjacent_nonencoded(self):
         eq = self.assertEqual
         h = Header()
diff -r d1cbf0347eb4 -r c43e264256e4 Lib/test/test_mailbox.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_mailbox.py	Fri Mar 25 22:06:04 2011 +0100
+++ b/Lib/test/test_mailbox.py	Fri Mar 25 22:15:57 2011 +0100
@@ -869,8 +869,6 @@
         self.assertFalse((perms & 0o111)) # Execute bits should all be off.
 
     def test_reread(self):
-        # Wait for 2 seconds
-        time.sleep(2)
 
         # Initially, the mailbox has not been read and the time is null.
         assert getattr(self._box, '_last_read', None) is None
@@ -879,15 +877,21 @@
         self._box._refresh()
         assert getattr(self._box, '_last_read', None) is not None
 
-        # Try calling _refresh() again; the modification times shouldn't have
-        # changed, so the mailbox should not be re-reading.  Re-reading causes
-        # the ._toc attribute to be assigned a new dictionary object, so
-        # we'll check that the ._toc attribute isn't a different object.
+        # Put the last modified times more than one second into the past
+        # (because mtime has a one second granularity, a refresh is done
+        # unconditionally if called for within the same second, just in case
+        # the mbox has changed).
+        for subdir in ('cur', 'new'):
+            os.utime(os.path.join(self._box._path, subdir),
+                     (time.time()-5,)*2)
+
+        # Re-reading causes the ._toc attribute to be assigned a new dictionary
+        # object, so we'll check that the ._toc attribute isn't a different
+        # object.
         orig_toc = self._box._toc
         def refreshed():
             return self._box._toc is not orig_toc
 
-        time.sleep(1)         # Wait 1sec to ensure time.time()'s value changes
         self._box._refresh()
         assert not refreshed()