Once upon a time, search engines were cluttered. A scrappy upstart called "Google" surpassed them with a minimalist interface. Ten years later, Google still has a minimalist interface... if you install a popular javascript bookmark. Progress!

We knew some of the First Lady's ancestors were slaves. But the New York Times' detailed genealogical investigation into precisely who those slaves were brings into moving relief what an astonishing historical earthquake her presence in the White House is.

NBC's legal team has one more headache on its hands. On Tuesday afternoon, the company was served with a lawsuit by the Font Bureau, one of the country's leading typographic design firms and the company responsible for crafting typefaces for the likes of Apple, Microsoft, and the New York Times Co. What would prompt a company that designs fonts to wage a legal assault on the media conglomerate? It seems NBC didn't secure the rights to use a handful of Font Bureau's trademarked typefaces. The same ones, we should add, that have been used as part of NBC's fall marketing campaign to tout shows like The Jay Leno Show, Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

The war of the sexes got hopped up on speed last night. It was like watching the Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs tennis match on fast forward, but with musical breaks. Unlike that famous contest, no one here was a winner.

Hello in there. This is your maybe dad, Joshua David Stein. There are some things I want you to know as you watch reruns of your mother on Top Chef, pre-you.

Are Halloween costume makers getting more and more inappropriate by the year, or are young girls actually getting sluttier? Either way, we're not pleased about it. [Whole gallery of disturbing little girl costumes at Blogue]

Tech bloggers are in a tizzy over the prospect of tech giants Google or Microsoft getting real-time access to the thoughts of Twitterers, but Valleywag has learned that cash-hungry Twitter is already selling access to its "firehose" of data.

Intrepid heir to the New York Times throne A.G. Sulzberger The Younger hath ventured forth in search of the city's oldest tree! Not to speak out of place, Sulzjunior, but are you sure the editors aren't screwing you?

We've said it before and we'll say it again: Mess with Jamie Dimon and you do so at your own risk. Last fall, during the bleakest moments of the financial crisis, the JPMorgan CEO began receiving threatening letters from a man who was angry about losing money a chunk of money following JPMorgan's acquisition of Washington Mutual. The anonymous letter-writer didn't just threaten to kill Dimon and promise to "McVeigh" the bank's New York office building. He also included a bit of white powder in one of the envelopes, which set off an anthrax scare at JPMorgan HQ. Duff McDonald recounts the episode in his new book on Dimon, Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase:

And the verdict is in: Brooke Astor's son, Anthony Marshall, was found guilty of more than a dozen charges moment ago, including grand larceny, which carries a mandatory prison sentence. Francis Morrissey Jr., Astor's estate lawyer, was convicted of forgery charges. [NYT]

Kassim Mohamed takes a journalistic trip to meet some Somalian pirates and ends up being held hostage and told "You're going to die in the next four hours if we don't get a kill today." Read it. [CPJ via TrueSlant]

The Fox television network reminds us of many things. When it shows American Idol, it's kinda like a great big Radio City revue. When Moment of Truth airs it's more Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

PR-man-masquerading-as-newspaper-columnist Mark Penn invented the term "Soccer Mom," which, of course, is the queen of all Microtrends. But now he's declaring the whole Soccer Mom thing dunzo! What catchphrase will you hang your hat on now, Señor Penn?

The estate of Helmut Newton is enraged at an L.A. window display of a nude mannequin, complete with pubic hair, mocked up to look like the cover of the photographer's recently-rereleased book SUMO. Um, they didn't pick the cover.

Put the paramedics on standby: Anthony Marshall's fraud trial should be coming to an in a few minutes: "Jurors in the epic Brooke Astor fraud trial told the judge Thursday they have a reached a decision in the case against the socialite's son, Anthony Marshall, and his lawyer buddy, Francis Morrissey, sources said. It's unclear if they reached a verdict on all 18 counts counts against Marshall and Morrissey - or just on some of the counts. It will be announced around 2:15 p.m." [NYDN]

By "pals around with," we mean "has received political donations from people who, subsequent to those donations, publicly expressed support for." Same difference! We await Politico's tally of the blood money Obama got from people who've appeared on Letterman.

When Eliot Spitzer isn't denying reports that he plans to return to politics, teaching classes, or living the life of an ordinary New Yorker, he manages the real estate company founded by his father. Back in March, as you may recall, he cut his first major deal since taking over his dad's firm when he acquired an office building in Washington, DC for $180 million. Well, he's still doing deals, albeit on a slightly smaller scale. Yesterday he sold off a parking garage on East 38th Street for $10.2 million. And he's a joy to work with, in case you were wondering. The man who bought the garage from the former governor describes him as a "total gentleman." [NYO]

[On the set of Wall Street 2 in Central Park yesterday, Old Grandpa Oliver Stone leans in to tell Shia LaBeouf and Michael Douglas that in his day, they walked to school with no shoes. Image via Bauer-Griffin]

The death of Gourmet has prompted plenty of maudlin remembrances. And plenty of suggestions as to why we should mourn it: the food, Ruth Reichl, the jobs, the beauty. One theory to ignore: the internet is ruining smart magazines!

Natalie Portman arriving at the Broadhurst Theatre for opening night of Hamlet ... Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts riding a scooter downtown ... Blake Lively arriving on the Gossip Girl set in Tribeca ... and Ed Westwick shooting scenes in Central Park ... America's No. 1 dad, Jon Gosselin, shopping on the Upper West Side ... Hugh Jackman carrying his kids' scooters in the West Village ... Pete Wentz standing in front of his hotel in Midtown ... Hilary Duff arriving at Silvercup Studios in Queens ... Khloe Kardashian arriving at JFK to catch a flight back to LA ... Sienna Miller partying at a club and signing autographs ... and Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf filming scenes for Wall Street 2 at the Central Park Zoo.