PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write. I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that it what I long for in both politics and golf. The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions like. And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

No one may care what I writE about the current trend toward political correctness in the naming of professional sports. But, as is often the case, that won’t stop from waxing eloquent.

The sports naming issue came to mind this morning as I read a column by Wall Street Journal Deputy Editorial Page Editor Daniel Henninger.

Under the headline, “Oh Yes, Ban the Redskins,” his column started this way:

“For now, the Washington Redskins are just the Washington Something or Others, a team with no name. After holding out for years against the inertial forces of political correctness, the Washington football team caved. Hmm, maybe ‘caved’ is inappropriate language now. They gave up.”

For my part, I have thought the term “redskins” was inappropriate and it turns out that many agree with me – or perhaps I agree with them.

But, then Henninger goes way over the top when he suggests that names which honor endangered species should have to go. As an example, he cites the Minnesota Timberwolves and says they should be called “the Minnesota Lutefisk.”

Say what?

And what in the world is “lutefisk?” Here, thanks to my friends at Google, is more than you may want to know – not to mention stomach – about lutefisk:

“Lutefisk is an interesting food because, unless you speak Norwegian (lutefisk) or Swedish (lutfisk), the name alone does not shed any light on what it actually is. Making things even trickier, if one were to show lutefisk to someone who has never heard of it, he or she still probably wouldn’t know what it is.

“The word ‘lutefisk’ translates to ‘lye fish,’ which is the first clue regarding this mystery meal, but it looks unlike any seafood most people have ever seen. I t’s white, semi-translucent, and, weirdest of all, gelatinous. Honestly, it looks like a cross between fat cells and some type of jellyfish Jell-O (apologies for that mental image). Okay, enough already, what in the heck is it?

“Lutefisk is whitefish — which refers to several species of finned fish such as cod, ling, or burbot — that has been air-dried and may or may not be salted. It is first soaked in cold water for five or six days, with the water changed daily. The now-saturated fish is then soaked again for two days in an unchanged solution of cold water and lye.

“Lye, for the record, is a substance obtained by leaching ashes, and is also known as sodium hydroxide. After this weeklong process, the fish loses half of its protein and gains a jelly-like consistency. It needs another four to six days of soaking in cold water, refreshed daily, before it is ready to be cooked.

“People apparently eat it after that.”

Not me!

Slings and arrows to Henninger for saying that lutefisk is a proper sports name.

It is not. I hated it once many years ago when I tried it and couldn’t eat anything for several days thereafter.

So, I say, “Go Timberwolves.”

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[Footnote: If you want more information on Henninger’s diatribe against the political correctness trend in the naming of sports teams (hard to believe you would], here’s what he wrote about the Portland Trailblazers and the San Francisco. “The Portland Trail Blazers celebrate genocidal pioneers. The San Francisco 49ers are named after 19th-century California gold-diggers who raped the environment.” Both, he says, should be changed. For more, go to the Wall Street Journal website.]