Pun-nable Headline? Check. Quirky Topic? Check. New York Institution? Check. (Front Page Metro!)

At least headline writers refrained from using variations of “in a pickle” or some such:

Mr. Leibowitz, who declined to be interviewed, fired the opening salvo of what fast became a nasty pickle war in February, when he sent a letter to Ms. Fairhurst, ordering her to stop using the Guss’s Pickles name. Ms. Fairhurst responded with a lawsuit filed in October, claiming she had ownership rights.

Not only has the lawsuit pitted pickler against pickler, it has also thrown into question the future of a Lower East Side institution as revered as Russ & Daughters food store and Katz’s Delicatessen. It has torn historic pickle alliances asunder. And it has devastated the surviving daughters of Izzy Guss, the original storied pickler supposedly known as the “Botticelli of Brine.”

“After my father passed away, what we sold was our name. That name was gold,” said Marilyn Guss Altman. “To think that all of this stuff is going on is breaking my heart.”

Who owns the name now? Now that is a real pickle.

Agh! It slipped in there anyway!