Red capital letters warned me: "DO NOT OPEN." I was at Miller's Pub in the Chicago Loop, having lunch on my way to the commuter train. The warning was printed along the edge of a cocktail napkin. Of course, I couldn't resist and opened it anyway. And inside was Miller's appetizer menu. Pretty smart merchandising. Later, on the train, I began thinking again about that cocktail napkin - how it teased me to peek inside, invited me in, tempted me with mock forbidden fruit. It was fun, a little fantasy, a game. And at the same time, it was all business.

This is when it struck me that this cocktail napkin reminded me of two pieces we were working on for the August issue: about how Fiesta Rental in West Palm Beach, Fla., creates the magic environment the customer dreams of, and Keith Klarin's comments in his Party Perfect column, about the party as "a construction project." Behind the fun and fantasy is the business of building it - unseen by the customer, but just as intellectually demanding as any other construction project and, above all, the critical component of the opus. Business, I mean.

Behind all the ruffles and balloons, the confetti and centerpieces and "charging dishes" that Keith taunts us iron-minded construction guys about is something we sure do recognize, and that is the purpose of all this: business. Pull off the frilly drapes and fancy plates and we profit-oriented ruffians see the party for what it is: serious business. Money.

That's what I learned at Fiesta Rental. But my eyes kept playing tricks on me. The fantasy kept taking over, pushing all else aside, like a new kitten, toying with me, teasing: "Let's have some fun." No wonder Fiesta is doing so well - who could resist such temptations?

Somebody asked me the other day if we edit letters to the editor. I answered that while yes, we may edit if necessary - say, to keep somebody from libeling somebody - practically speaking, no, we don't fiddle with letters if there's any way to avoid it. Oh, we might fix a grammatical slip-of-the-tongue so a person who knows better doesn't sound like a dummy; we might whittle out some words to make a letter fit the space available rather than hold it a month; but we don't add any words, or change them without putting the substitution [in brackets] to indicate we are faithfully capturing the writer's intentions even if the text is not verbatim. We restrict editing of letters to what is strictly necessary.

Here's why we're so religious about our letters policy: we want you to know that you can be heard in Rental Management, that your thoughts are welcome here, and that we don't meddle with what you have to say - assuming you're not just being nasty and the topic hasn't been beaten to death already. The RM letters page is a forum where rental people come to talk seriously about things they care about. And the mail we get is usually pretty upbeat and positive, so it's a pleasure to bring it to you.