May 27, 2010

taco shaped object.

Wikipedia: "The taco predates the arrival of Europeans in Mexico. There is anthropological evidence that the indigenous people living in the lake region of the Valley of Mexico traditionally ate tacos filled with small fish. Writing at the time of the Spanish conquistadors, Bernal Díaz del Castillo documented the first taco feast enjoyed by Europeans, a meal which Hernán Cortés arranged for his captains in Coyoacán. It is not clear why the Spanish used their word, "taco", to describe this indigenous food."

Once upon a dice rolling RPG. There was an inquiry for a description of an object in game. Being the person running the game (Game Master, GM or Dungeon Master DM). It was behooving for me to provide said illumination on the item in question. Sadly there was no real definition on hand and sadly any explanation would be moot as there was no bearing on this item and the plot line being followed.

In other words the object was a dunsel.

Players being players in this situation are ready to pounce on the most innocuous things and sometimes require some steering. (In DM terms: "Sometimes you have to leave the tavern to start an adventure").

My mind, unbidden, came up with the nonsensical phrase "It is clearly a Taco Shaped Object." This provided a laugh and the understanding that the players were barking up the wrong tree.

Years later I would still hear of my compatriots utilize this phrase in place of the less civil "I don't know and it doesn't matter!"

For some reason this morning I googled Taco out of curiosity over the origin of the name. Lo and behold the above copy paste. The last line was the one that made me smile and realize that perhaps my mind is better at logical nonsense then I thought...

1 comment:

flyingvan said...

Used it! Playing the 'Dictionary Game', my definition of the chosen word was "A small,taco shaped bird indigenous to New Trafalgar".
The person reading the definitions couldn't even finish reading it out loud.
It wasn't used in the context you're blogging about, I know--but it still had the same effect