Photo: Sarasota Country Sheriff's Office

I've always wanted to find a message in a bottle. Or on a balloon string. Or in a tree. Better yet, how about a mysterious man washing to shore, bearing a cryptic message? That's just what happened on Florida beach this week. This stranger-come-to-town is 8 feet tall, 100 pounds, and was found wearing a t-shirt that reads "NO REAL THAN YOU ARE." Oh, and he's a giant Lego. What can it all mean? Did he escape from a giant's playset?

Okay, so it's a publicity stunt/art piece orchestrated by a Dutch artist (or someone) called Ego Leonard (or maybe that's the Lego man himself, no one seems quite sure). That doesn't diminish the wonderful, weird mystery of it. Imagine walking along the shore and discovering this huge Lego fellow. What a moment that would be! Someone went to a lot of trouble all so that Jeff Hindman (or whoever) could happen open this object and experience an instant of an upside-down world, a moment of magic. By turns playful and enigmatic, the Lego man, if nothing else, injects a moment of whimsy into the world.

Read the original article in the Herald-Tribune for "Ego Leonard"'s hilarious response to requests for information.