My employer, Mr. Ripley, to whom I was deeply attached, invisibly appended, would not talk on the telephone for fear of electrocution. He owned boats by the score, his bathing costume consisted of a pith helmet, droopy swim trunks and dog-eared bathrobe, but he refused to immerse himself in water. He owned the world’s largest fleet of cars, but refused to drive. He rotated harems of beautiful women but beyond Beatrice, never married. He kept a 28-foot pet boa constrictor in his mansion, BION, on instruction it be granted one milk-fed mouse per day, dangled from washed fingertips by its rubbery, ballerina pink tail.

As Mr. Robert Leroy Ripley beheld the scope of the earth, its vast peculiarities, its human epic of horrors, its animal, mineral and vegetable incredulities, his own little worm of self-hatred shrank, shriveled, gave up the ghost.  This is my opinion only.

I never met Mr. Ripley in my life. It would have been a superfluous gesture.     

“The world is all a fleeting show, for man’s illusion given.”  
                                                                                                
For every navigator, a compass. For every farmer a seed. For every doctor, a symptom. For every actor, a play. For every charlatan, a fool. For the body of Robert Ripley, there is his supernal appendage, Mr. Pearlroth of the carbuncled bottom, here now, talking to you.

ANSWERS:
Mark of Cain: Some scholars say God gave Cain a dog for protection. Others say God gave him a disease such as leprosy. No one knows the factual answer.

Age of Moses: 3 months

Age of Adam: 930 years

Nostradamus, End Days, Apocalypse: See Miles Stair’s Survival Shop, Urban Suvivalists or Frugal Squirrels.