Bluff(ing) to make a point

Thank goodness Bluff was only bluffing. But there was something about the notion that the tiny town in San Juan County might be considering a name change to PokerShare.com that touched a chord.

Through the ages, a lot of Americans have willingly put a fast buck ahead of just about anything else. An offer of $100,000 from a British online gambling concern may be just what some town is looking for.

Don't forget, a Utah woman made headlines earlier this year by agreeing to tattoo the Web site of a casino on her forehead in exchange for a mere $10,000.

Others have made bargains that are not quite as easy to dismiss. Back in 1950, the town of Hot Springs, N.M., voted overwhelmingly to change to Truth or Consequences, after a popular radio show. The city was looking for some sort of economic boost; something to differentiate it from all the other hapless burgs on a wind-swept prairie and maybe to drum up a little tourism in the process.

Today, long after the show went off the air, the town remains a bit of an oddity, but it hasn't exactly turned into a tourist mecca.

Ismay, Mont., population 26, agreed to become Joe, Montana, in honor of the NFL quarterback but only for a season. Halfway, Ore., became Half.com, Ore., in exchange for a computer lab at the local elementary school. But that, too, was temporary, and the city always used Halfway as its official name.

When the great American Indian athlete Jim Thorpe died in 1953, and his widow couldn't get any help from Oklahoma officials to bury him there, the towns of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk in Pennsylvania agreed to merge into the city of Jim Thorpe and bury him there.

With cities, just as with anything else in life, purchases must be weighed against the total costs. No bargain is good enough if it costs a reputation.

Bluff's Town Council chairman, Patrick McDermott, said he was just having some fun when he e-mailed everyone in town with the PokerShare.com proposal. In reality, he said, it would be like selling a part of Utah for nuclear waste storage — a comparison that seems quite appropriate.

Centuries ago, Shakespeare asked what difference a name makes. But we doubt even he would find a rose smelling very sweet if its petals were dipped in the stench of greed.