Because of the wide variety of things I'm subscribed to on Google Reader, I stumble across a lot of really random stuff, but oftentimes there are amazing gems like this one. Photographer "Balakov" posted a set of pictures on the photo sharing site Flickr that he titled "Classics in Lego" - basically, he recreated several of the most famous photographs of all time with Legos. As an aficionado of photography who also spent a LOT of his childhood playing with Legos, this set really made me smile.

The one I posted is a recreation of Henri Cartier-Bresson's "Behind the Gare Saint Lazare" and there are several others, including "Lunch atop a Skyscraper" and "VJ Day Times Square." The execution is pretty impressive, as it shows in each setup shot he links to under the description of the originals. Bravo, Balakov!

See a slideshow of "Classics in Lego."

H/T: Journerdism

 However, those types of moments are forever embedded in the minds of a lot of people. My favorite March Madness memory is probably from the 1998 tournament, when I was a sophomore in high school. On the first day of the NCAA tournament, I came into my second-period Health class expecting another pretty average day, but our teacher Jim Sziksai informed us that an old friend of his, Valparasio coach Homer Drew, would be appearing in the NCAAs that morning and asked if it would be all right with us if we took the day off and watched Valpo play. He acknowledged they would probably get killed anyways but high school kids relish doing no work, and for those of us that were sports fans it was that much more awesome. Some of us watched the game pretty intently while most of the class caught up on homework but wouldn't you know it, spunky Valparaiso hung around with 3-seed Ole Miss and as the game drew closer and closer to the end, the entire class got wrapped up in watching and rooting for the underdog. As it got down to the last few minutes, Sziksai was so excited he started pulling in a few other teachers on the hall, so other kids were pouring into our classroom. There was this collective tension as the clock ticked toward the end, when the coach's son, Bryce Drew, would produce one of the most memorable finishes in NCAA history...

The entire classroom, now stuffed to capacity, went nuts. I think those are the types of memories I love because it demonstrates something that I really believe to be good about sports: it brings people together. This random group of high schoolers in Asheville, NC was going crazy over an Indiana college winning a game in Oklahoma City. Pretty awesome.