how do you get “whale watching” from “zodiac”? - but if that’s what it turns out to be - how great - I’ve been on a couple of WW’s off the east end of Long Island NY - On one trip, dolphins played around off the port side where my friend and I were trying not to turn too green (very choppy waters that day) - too bad i didn’t have a decent camera with me that day
Or you could be going star watching, since the position of “stars” (planets) is fundemental to predictions in Astrology.
I did a quick Google search for
victoria bc canada whale watching zodiac
and came up with a company near there called Prince of Whales which happens to have a boat they refer to as “the large Zodiac” – now, not being an ocean person, I have no clue whether Zodiac is the name of the boat or a type of whale-watching boat, but I think this mystery’s solved.
Sorry I was a little unclear. The one local company that fits the royalty clue uses Zodiac boats for their whale watching tours. Hopefully it won’t be too rough out there on Friday - the forecast says it’s supposed to be sunny at least, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be windy. I’ll be taking my camera with me, so if I get any good pictures I’ll post them.
Zabali - Good guess, but I think that trying to see stars at 1 pm could be a bit challenging. 
I suppose we could be going to a planetarium, but all the other clues so far have pointed towards something on a boat.
At first I thought the “royalty” reference was to the lady who does quite a passable imitation of Queen Brenda: http://www.pinc.com/~queen/index.html
She did an HR conference for Parks that was held here in Victoria, and had them all laughing. That’s HR people laughing. She did the fake “dubbing” with a telescoping sword she drew out of her decolletage. “Excuse me, have you seen my handbag? Shiny, about this big, no coins?”
ok - I give - who’s Queen Brenda?
Sorry! The Great British Satirical Press (well, Private Eye) always refer to HM Queen Elizabeth “Brenda.” Sort of a “bringing-her-down-to-our-level-by-using-what-we-perceive-to-be-a-middle-class-name.”
Y’know, the old BHDTOLBUWWPTBAMCN thing.
The Eye also has stock phrases for things like extra-marital sex (“Ugandan Relations”), and my favourite, in describing a drunk politician or celebrity: “tired and emotional.”
They generally stem from mocking the tone of the gutter press in the UK.
Here is absolutely everything you will never need to know about the Eye:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Eye
Another great thing about the Eye is (That’s enough trainspotting on obscure British gossip mags – Ed.)
Thank you, I think I’ve just discovered a new favorite website.
That could’ve been…interesting. Actually, it may be too early to rule her out just yet. After all, there’s still dinner to account for, or maybe she’ll join us whale watching. Can you picture the queen in one of those bright orange jumpsuits they put you in before heading out in the zodiac?
My boss wound up providing some amusement this afternoon. He’s normally pretty on-the-ball, but around 3:30 he wandered into the lab looking extraordinarily pleased with himself, and announced that he’d figured out what our itinerary was. I actually felt a little bad at how deflated he was when he found out I’d figured it out hours earlier, and so had everybody else. In his defence, he’s been really busy lately, so he probably hadn’t had a chance to look at his email until then, but it was still funny.
It’s usually pretty easy to see a star at 1 p.m., actually…
I saw one of those zodiac whale-watching boats once. I was on a regular boat, doing the whale-watching thing, and I was jealous because the orcas were closer to the zodiac boat.
Now, the zodiac boat sits very low in the water. I mention this because at one point, an orca that was almost the same size as the zodiac breached the water so close to them that everyone in the zodiac was splashed. The other orcas decided it was a game, and started splashing around. We could hear the people in the zodiac screaming 100 yards away. Suddenly, they didn’t want to be so close to the whales. I took this photo just before the “fun” began.
Now I’m confused:
That’s more a definition than a clue, and I can’t think of anything relevant, unless we’re moving on to dinner.
Rufus Xavier: Where was that picture taken?
Well, let’s see … anything nearby about a fence? (Offense, get it? Yeah, it’s a stretch.)
“scoff” “misdemeanor” “petty crime” “traffic” “ticket”!
Ticket! does that help?
Never mind, one of my co-workers just figured it out. Infraction = breach. Whales breach (jump out of the water). It’s just another clue confirming something everyone’s already worked out.
Breach?
Somewhere in the San Juan Islands area. It’s possible that the land in the background is Orcas Island, but it’s been a couple of years now, and I don’t remember exactly.
Obviously, though, in your neck of the woods.
So to speak.
Have you gotten today’s clue yet, or has HR realized you’ve all got it figured otu by now?
Nothing yet. The first two clues came first thing in the morning, but since then they’ve been coming out around 10:30 am, so we’ll probably have to wait a couple of hours yet. I don’t think they care whether or not people have figured it out, they’re having too much fun playing their little game.
Today’s clue:
Now, there was a rumour going around the other day that dinner was going to be at the Macaroni Grill restaurant, so I’d say that the rumour’s correct.
Oh, and shortly after I posted earlier that everyone’s figured it out, I spoke with someone who hadn’t, or at least he wasn’t convinced yet. This was one of the senior scientists no less. Mind you, this may be a case where having your own office is a disadvantage. I share an office with 4 other people, so between talking to them and posting here every possible angle gets covered.