Published in: Sign Systems Studies 26, 1998 (pp. 20-41). The Estonian connection Thomas A. Sebeok Exordium The topic for this highly personal account was suggested, with Peeter Torop s concurrence and encouragement, by my colleague Kalevi Kull, a founder of the University of Tartu s Jakob von Uexkull Center. Its purpose is to chronicle my direct involvement with certain segments of scholarship ...