Only a few things will make a chatty entrepreneur stop talking about their next big idea: a lawsuit, an IPO, or a magazine cover story. The last explains Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes's recent quiet period.

America is a land of hope, where you can steal, plead guilty, have your office raided by the FBI, and still get a job in the White House. Like Vivek Kundra, Obama's CIO!

• It's been a busy few days for Valentino. He's taped appearances for Oprah and Martha Stewart; Valentino: The Last Emperor, the new documentary about him, debuts in NYC tomorrow; and it's rumored that despite his very public retirement in early 2008, he remains in charge of his eponymous fashion house. [Fashionologie, WWD, P6]
• What will you find if you visit Valentino's apartment overlooking Central Park? Lots of zebra armchairs and porcelain statues. And air that's "thick with spicy, masculine cologne." Exactly what you pictured, basically. [NYM]

Ruth Madoff is retreating to a $9.4 million beachside redoubt in Florida that the feds will be powerless to seize from her, where she will relax, sun herself, and cackle at her husband's stupid victims.

Ugh. We knew the whole scene was getting lame when the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service moved into the McKibben Lofts.

[Today we celebrate St. Patrick's Day, which commemorates the day a million years ago when St. Patrick drove all the robots out of Ireland. Image via ladybugbkt's Flickr]

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said this afternoon that Barack Obama has "complete confidence" in flailing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Which means he will be fired shortly. How long? Here's a handy guide:

Want to complain about someone? Media people who love to whine, from L.A. to Austin to Washington, all turn to Twitter to air their beefs. Gripes from a Ryan Seacrest wordsmith and others today:

"Okay, brainstorm: It's a recession. You've lost your job. What do you do with your time?" (Silence). "Volunteer?" "Good, write it up!" That's how your new most popular recession angle gets made!

Chris Hughes, the Facebook cofounder who helped Barack Obama win the election online, has landed a real job, he tells us via Twitter: He's working at General Catalyst Partners as an entrepreneur-in-residence.

• Another great restaurant humbled: It looks like Per Se is planning to introduce an à la carte menu in its salon and bar area. [Eater]
• Two armed men stormed Mario Batali's Esca. Instead of taking cash, though, they made off with envelopes stuffed with "worthless paper receipts." [NYP]
• Looks like Park Avenue Winter's PR stunt of giving free meals to girls dressed up as schoolgirls is paying off. Some 250 girls turned up last night. [Eater]
• Lawyer/enemy of NYC restaurateurs Maimon Kirshenbaum: He's back. [NYT]
• A caviar lounge really is opening at the Four Seasons Hotel. [Zagat]
• If you ask nicely (and perhaps make up a story about losing your job), you might be able to negotiate a discount at Starbucks and Cosi. [NYP]
• Some tips on where to go tonight to drink yourself silly in honor of St. Paddy's Day if you're still in need of recommendations. [Metromix, Citysearch]

Some 'What Will Become of Newspapers?' thinkers believe that the iTunes model is the future of the news business. Well, with one software upgrade, paid news is now an iPhone app! Will this matter?

The status of actress Natasha Richardson after her skiing accident remains unclear, as various news agencies are reporting vastly differing items. The New York Post claims she is "brain dead," TMZ claims she is not.

Has Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg been driven mad by envy? In his effort to redesign his social network in the image of Twitter, he may well end up destroying everything good about it, users say.

Every economic apocalypse needs a good crypto-fascist representative of the working man to drum up popular outrage. Last time around, it was Father Charles Coughlin. Who's going to answer the call now?

Twitter has already spawned a deal for an appropriately meta book, so you knew that Tumblr couldn't be far behind. Tumblr's is all about animals, because people don't read "words" any more.

It's hard to quibble with the sentiment expressed by the Brooklyn resident who used the back window of this handsome Dodge here to voice his/her frustration with the situation at AIG. But would it be too much to ask that the person get the name of the company right? Guess it's a good thing that no attempt was made to actually write out "American International Group." [NewYorkShitty]

Here's a photo, found on Facebook, of Radar founder Maer Roshan in... middle school? Ninth grade maybe? He looks to be about 14 or so. Anyway, just a funny trip back in time.

Ladies and gentlemen, your winning request, "Rush the Hutt," by wondrous pancake painter to the stars Dan Lacey. You may buy this cultural artifact on Ebay, right now.

[Kate Moss leaving a grocery in Paris; image via Bauer-Griffin]