Stories Worth Reading/Sharing/Writing/Selling

"I had a show. Then I had another show. Now I have a Twitter account."

"This morning I watched Remington Steele while eating Sugar Smacks out of a salad bowl. I was naked."

"Today I interviewed a squirrel in my backyard and then threw to commercial. Somebody help me."

The first is his bio. The second is his most recent Tweet. The third is his first.

Anyway you slice it, this kid is gonna come out on top. He is funny. He is a people's person. That's what he is. And today more than any other day, what the world needs most is more people people.

Keep up the good work, Conan. You are kicking ass and taking names!

With my prediction of more than 400,000 by his fourth tweet, the Chicago Tribune reports that he is already beating the Ozzie Guillen, The Dalai Lama and Jay Leno as far as followers are concerned. But what's more is that this guy has a monkey on his back. For real, check out his Twitter picture...it's even hilarious.

But I'm not actually talking about the real live monkey on his back. I'm talking about how Conan O'Brien's monkey is that he is a born story-teller in a time where story-telling is far selling sold spaces and advertorials then ever before. Just look at the failed ad spots of the Super Bowl compared to the succesful marketing campaigns that are launching everywhere - one call for story sharing after another. And why is that? I think it's really just another part of this notion that people are stupid...that it's a people-driven economy, stupid...people want people people.

We want to hear about the stories behind the Olympic athletes as we cheer them on. We want to know why Tiger feels the need to cheat on someone as beautiful as Elin. We want to understand the difficulties of Charlie Sheen's addictive behaviors and we want to know why someone would attack Hannah Storm's sartorial delights. We want to watch as American Idol contestants and Bachelor babes bare their souls and sell their ethics (or vice versa) and we want to hear their stories of how and why and what and what next. And then, of course, there is Snooki. I actually want to hear nothing at all about her and her dirty little ways. But I am incredibly impressed by the Kardashians and how much they appear to love each other while at the same time live lives that seem meant only for tv.

Why are we so obsessed by these people? BECAUSE THEY ARE PEOPLE, people. They eat cereal naked. They have flaws. They get into fights. They like money. They love food. They need each other. We need them. And their stories.

The monkey on Conan's back that will indeed propel him forward is his uncanny sense of humor and his mastery of a story told. He started his career as a writer and now we will most likely write his own ending. Good for him!