In one of those rich-people settlements where the accused gets off but everyone totally knows he's guilty anyway, Anthony Marshall, whose own son accused him of abusing and neglecting his mother, the 104-year-old socialite Brooke Astor, has been cleared of all charges. He's also required to fork over $11 million of his mother's money, and he's not the only one who's going to be out a couple of bucks:

Fascinating piece in the Times this morning about Mrs. Astor. The hook: It's not about the recent allegations of poor treatment at the hands of her son, it's about how she managed to live so long in the first place. The Times offers a variety of reasons that the woman could have lasted this long: diet, health, exercise habits, and genetics are all offered as possible solutions. While we claim no expertise in the study of longevity, we'd like to propose our own thesis: