available at the present time require that the lift cords by which the bottom rail, and the pleats thereabove, are moved toward and away from the head rail must be fixed in location at the factory, thus necessitating that shortening be done at each end of the pleats to preserve the aesthetically balanced appearance of the covering. However, the head rail can only be shortened at one end due to the arrangement of the cord raising, lowering, and locking mechanism which is hidden from view at one end of the head rail and accessed only through the side of the head rail at one end thereof, thus precluding the possibility of concurrent sizing of pleats and rails. This limitation should be contrasted to the recent system for sizingtheir lifestyle, especially online,'' said Christopher Falkenberg, president of Insite Security. (Mr. Lampert was released unharmed almost two days later, and his four captors have been convicted.)

But is hiring a bodyguard -- or executive-protection professional, as many guards prefer to be called -- really necessary? Fears of terrorism notwithstanding, the number of violent crimes nationwide dropped nearly 26 percent from 1993 to 2002, according to figures released in October by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Serious crimes fell an additional 3.1 percent in the first half of 2003, the F.B.I. said.

''Probably 30 to 40 percent of them don't need it; it's more for peace of mind,'' Kenn Kurtz, chief executive of the Steele Foundation, a security services business in San Francisco, said of those who hire bodyguards.

Keith Greenhouse,