/etc/hosts (was: Isolated from Internet, what to do..)

[Bryan Scaringe]

I have heard quite a bit on this list about not mapping
HOSTNAME to 127.0.0.1.

So the question is: how else could one map a name to their
machine, and use that as an address?

For example: my machine is stand-alone.
I want to name it, for example, "bacon".
Actually, "bacon.skillet.net".

So what is the proper way to write a /etc/hosts file
for this machine?

TIA,
  Bryan Scaringe