Remember those crazy days when what mattered at work was whether you were good at the job (and if you were loathed/feared by your coworkers and subordinates, well, so much the better)? In the recession's latest weird warping of accepted mores, we're now being told that being nice and upbeat is the best way to dodge a pink slip. A Harvard Business Review article, "How to Protect Your Job in a Recession," identifies the characteristics of "recession survivors" as "cheerful, likable, generous contributors, and not necessarily the most skilled and proficient."

A decade ago, Fortune pegged CNET founder Halsey Minor's net worth at $354 million. Today he's fending off lawsuits seeking $60 million. Has he run out of money?

It's hard to find stuff to be cheerful about these days, isn't it? Today is not one of those days. A new report shows that New York is the 15th safest state in the nation, a nice bump up from 2008 when New York was ranked 20th. Just 4.2 murders and 15.2 rapes per 100,000 people! Also: Stay away from Nevada. It's really dangerous there! [NYDN]

Gigi Levangie, author of The Starter Wife, has so much of producer Brian Grazer's money after their divorce, that she can write books about her rich divorcée life just to piss him off.

Remember how author Daphne Merkin downplayed her brother's connection to Bernie Madoff in the Times this past weekend, describing Ezra Merkin as "a sibling who did business with him," and then suggesting that Madoff's victims weren't really victims, since no one held a gun to their heads and demanded their cash? We weren't the only ones surprised by the bizarro op-ed. The Times agrees that a bit more disclosure was warranted, according to an email a reader received from Times public editor Clark Hoyt:

If you bump into Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss—or you're a reporter and you happen to be interviewing her for some reason—she'd very much appreciate it if you didn't bring up the name of a certain comedian whom she was involved with more than a decade ago. At least that was the request passed along to a writer from Louisville's Courier-Journal, who had a few questions prepared for the socialite-designer when she touched down in Louisville last week for a trunk show at the (very posh-sounding) Blink Boutique. "No problem," the reporter replies; the subject "wasn't even on my radar screen." Of course, she mentions the snub in the first paragraph and refers to her as "Seinfeld's Ex" in the subhead of the article, so we'll take that as an indication Shoshanna's request was denied.

People who inadvertently starred in Youtube videos that got huge are the child TV stars of the internet, their lives defined by some awkward, emasculating moment. So it goes for the "Numa Numa" guy.

Maddow's plucky enthusiasm for boring things is part charming (stimulus!) and part annoying (card check!), but her unhinged fervor last night for a supposed Barack Obama's smackdown of Dick Cheney was actually sort of creepy.

You have displeased Grandfather greatly. Rather than spending your Monday evening drinking brandy in the library, chatting with a senator, you spent it watching Gossip Girl. At least hook Gramps up with a recap, yo.

Interesting: during this recession, candy sales are way up. Even the unemployed are finding that in tough times, it doesn't cost much at all to help trend story writers. [NYT]

• Hachette is looking to sell a big bunch of magazines, including Road & Track, Car & Driver, American Photo, Boating, Cycle World, Sound & Vision, and Flying. Package deals available; financing not so much. [AdAge, MW]
• Dick Parsons will step down from the Time Warner board in May. [Crains]
• Time Warner is buying a stake in Ron Lauder's European TV company. [PC]
• Discovery chief David Zaslav is "cable's fastest rising star," according to Forbes. Also: You're welcome to call him "Zazz" if you'd like. [Forbes]
• More on the media tour that Eliot Spitzer has been on recently. [NYO]
• It seems the Obama administration is looking at ways to avoid the "filter of the mainstream media." That sounds familiar, doesn't it? [Politico]
• Further proof that CNBC sucks, assuming you need some. [MediaMatters]
• Barry Meyer and Alan Horn will spend two more years at Warner Bros. [THR]
• George Lopez has a new talk show on TBS. Contain your excitement. [NYT]

The problem with New York is people that think that transcendent genius is caged in their mind, a few sentences away from lucratively leaping to the public sphere. It's a generation of people who truly believe that they have something world-altering to say, when really it's just the same 70's bong-water bullshit soaking our collective socks. Work hard or leave, and no, buying a MacBook and launching a blog doesn't count as working. Get a job, shut up, and be someone's bitch for 30 years like our parents had to. Or don't, and try not to act so surprised when you aren't one of the lucky 3 or 4 who actually pull that whole wealthy fameball savant thing off.

It turns out that the Silver Hill rehab facility in New Canaan, Connecticut is ideally located for its new glut of customers: local residents whose Wall Street careers flourished due to personal qualities—being risk-prone and adrenalin-seeking with a deluded sense of invincibility and a work hard/play hard attitude—that have led them down the path of drug addiction and alcoholism now that times are hellishly stressful.

Two conceptual artists/nuts decided that they could stop people from dying by building bizarre apartments for them. But Bernie Madoff lost all their money! He's killed the dream of immortality through uneven flooring:

More details have emerged in the murder of ABC radio newsman George Weber, who was stabbed to death in his Brooklyn apartment on Friday. It looks like a "sex slay," unfortunately.

Harvey Weinstein leaving the Waverly Inn with Blake Lively and Penn Badgley ... Hugh Jackman buying art supplies at Blick on Bond Street ... Jennifer Aniston getting in an SUV ... Philip Seymour Hoffman smoking a cigarette in the Village ... Vanessa Williams filming scenes for Ugly Betty on the Lower East Side ... Diane Kruger walking downtown ... Mariska Hargitay standing on the Law & Order set ... U2's The Edge walking with his wife, Morleigh Steinberg ... Celine Dion getting in an SUV outside her hotel ... Mario Lopez grabbing a taxi in front of Rockefeller Center ... and Kirsten Dunst watching a Rangers game at Madison Square Garden.

[Harvey Weinstein leaving the Waverly Inn with "Gossip Girl" stars Blake Lively and Penn Badgley; image via INF]

Politico's Ben Smith unleashed a vicious assault of "SPEED+POWER" this morning on Philippe Reines, Hillary Clinton's flack, in yet another round of successful Drudge-baiting.

New Moon has found its werewolves, E! has found its late night muse. Cameron Diaz forges new territory, while Catherine O'Hara ought to look good toting a gun. Plus, Amanda Bynes news.

Former editor of this site Choire Sicha is writing a book! Which we knew already. But now he's talking about it! The Platonic Ideal of 'Gawker' is writing about...people like you!