[AnotherUnixGeek]

I heard that Noah's Ark was really a little 30 foot long river barge in which he loaded his family and some livestock and set sail along the Tigris River down to the Gulf to escape some localized flooding.

That, at least, sounds plausible.

[Sacajaweau]

Does the bible story mention Mrs. Ark? I came to believe as I grew older that it was an analogy about a man who went to the store to get a loaf of bread and never returned. (He left his wife.)

And if it is so, the women in the "Ark" neighborhood were gossiping and the men about town, the scribes, said he went on a fishing trip and never returned.

Makes sense to me.