The Fredösphere

When I was a kid, I invented an imaginary country called Kuba, located in Branch County, Michigan.  Through an improbable series of events (I imagined), a group of Turks, sent by the Czar of Russia to explore Siberia, blunder across the ice of the Bering Straight during a blizzard, and end up settling down in southern Michigan.  This happening several centuries ago; I can't remember exactly how long, but it definitely predated the European exploration of the New World.  Because of a long string of (again, improbable) bureaucratic bungles by the U.S. government, Kuba's continuing existence has never been noticed by the outside world, and a certain cultural tendency within Kuba toward isolationism prevents it to this day from drawing attention to itself.  The three main religions of Kuba are Orthodoxy (nominally subject to the Patriarch of Moscow), Islam, and a weird expression of Protestantism that developed independent of, but (coincidentally) at the same time as, the European variety.  The men of Kuba wear the Arab headdress, for no justifiable reason.  Kuba's size is measured in acres, and its population in the hundreds.  I used to have a map.  It's Grand Hotel is the tallest structure in Michigan (except that it's not in Michigan, it's in Kuba -- but never mind).  I could go on.

Now, meet the Khazars, a group of Turkic nomads whose ruling class converted to Judaism.  Truth is stranger, and all that.  The article fails to mention how many of the Khazars ended up settling in southern Michigan.

At least one other person has imagined a country called Kuba, which was the name of a real kingdom in central Africa.  Further searching of the web for "kuba" gets you to this piece by Theodore Dalrymple, England's chief pessimist.  Let us fervently hope Dr. D.'s anecdotal evidence is not representative, else England is doomed.