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The St. Petersburg Traveling Circus

JL;DR SUMMARY Maxim D. Shrayer's narrative explores the journey of Art and Ilene, reflecting on their diverse cultural backgrounds and personal histories. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish HistorySoviet UnionCultural IdentityImmigrant ExperienceIntermarriageFamily HeritageEstoniaSaaremaaAmerican Jewish LifeBaltic Region

Places mentioned

Tallinn, Saare, Estonia
"Their red Opel, a free upgrade courtesy of a toothy manager at the Tallinn airport, was sailing the short passage from the mainland in the ferrys bowels."
Kuressaare, Saare, Estonia
"Traversing Saaremaa from the northeast to the southwest, they drove for about 40 minutes in the direction of Kuressaare, the islands capital, stopping once to look at a small church built from rough bottle-green stones."
Maplewood, New Jersey, United States
"A year after getting married, they moved to a renovated Tudor in Maplewood, New Jersey, just a short walk from Main Street with its fabulous bookstore and its toy train station."
Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
"Ilie-Lily was Arts invention, a nickname with roots in Indianapolis. At Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, his parents, chemical engineers turned researchers turned refuseniks, had found their first jobs after coming to America."
New York, United States
"They had met in New York, where Ilene used to teach social studies in a private school."
New York, United States
"Her high-risk obstetrician at Mount Sinai had told them everything was going fine and it was safe to travel now that she was in her second trimester, and yet they were still nervous about little things."
Iowa, United States
"art and ilene were standing on the upper deck of the saaremaa ferry. art had already wolfed down an open-faced sandwich made with mealy caraway bread, butter, a peppered hard-boiled egg and baltic anchovies, and was knocking back a portly dark-green bottle with a white castle on its coat of hops."
Saare, Estonia
"on the way to virtsu, a town on the west coast of estonia where art and ilene caught the ferry to the island of saaremaa."
St. Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
"We call it the St. Petersburg Traveling Circus, but thats a big stretch."

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Cairo Item ID 59767
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Retrieved 2025-08-21 05:33:25 UTC
Curated 2025-08-21 08:31:04 UTC