Daily Bafflements

• It’s Jack Kerouac’s birthday today, a good time as any to re-read Maura Mahoney’s Baffler salvo from issue 5, way back in 1993, “Back in Black on the Beaten Path,” about Gap’s rather forced black trend and the commercial rediscovery of the Beats.

• Hillary Clinton’s Chappaqua neighbors, they’re just like us! One tells the New York Daily News, “I have equal disgust for both parties for the most part.”

• Today in Billionaires: Rags-to-riches billionaires, brought to you by Forbes. “In the U.S., several billionaires show that the American Dream can be a reality for just about anyone, whether you’re an immigrant on welfare (see WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum), you’ve been homeless (see John Paul Mitchell System’s John Paul DeJoria) or a war vet (see Dole’s David Murdock).”

• Saddest Headline of the Day, via EurekAlert: “Understanding Loneliness Through Science.”