Dear LFTP: is it rude to eat a cough drop in public?

• Is it rude to eat a cough drop in public?

A host reads a Dear LFTP letter asking whether it is rude to eat a cough drop in public, since the writer's best friend finds the smell offensive and says sick people should stay home. The hosts and band agree it is not rude: they would rather smell a cough drop than hear coughing through a movie or opera, distinguish a lingering cough from being contagious, and rib a host who claims he can smell a cough drop from fifteen feet away. The secular advice agrees people should stay home if sick but rejects refunds-for-cough as unrealistic; a host adds a London Les Misérables anecdote about getting in trouble for leaving a balcony door open.