Dear LFTP: the baking-extract recipe secret
- How do I decline to share my baking-extract recipe with customers without seeming rude or hurting future sales?
A home-based baker selling extracts at the farmer's market does not want to reveal her time-consuming, expensive process when customers ask how she makes them. The hosts brainstorm witty deflections — 'secret family recipe,' claiming to be a wizard, '90% ingredients, 10% love, 5% magic' — and run a round where each must produce one folksy line. The Secular answer: smile and say that would be giving away trade secrets, but you can share one — you make them all with love.
More on Honesty
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Dear LFTP: explaining an invisible disability
- How do I explain my invisible disability to friends who act like I'm making it up?
Mike reads a letter from a listener with polyneuropathy, seven back surgeries, and arthritis in every joint who lives in constant invisible pain and doesn't know how to explain it to friends who act like she's making it up.
From No. 585 · Split Ends | Interacting with other Denominations
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Dear LFTP: ending a friendship or ghosting the young couple
- Should I ghost an unwanted friendship or tell them honestly I want to end it?
A listener wants to end a relationship with a younger couple who guilt-tripped them into visits, now with toddlers she dislikes; her husband disagrees and wants to keep up the charade.
From No. 568 · Like Jesus
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Dear LFTP: the boyfriend's uncomfortably hard bed and couch
- How do I tell my boyfriend his expensive bed and couch are too uncomfortable to sleep on?
A host hands the advice segment to Mike ("Alright. Mike, let's give some advice") and a host reads the Dear LFTP letter: a woman in a tumultuous-but-currently-good relationship…
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Dear LFTP: the aggressively negative colleague
- Should I make excuses or be honest with a negative, aggressive friend?
Mike reads the third Dear LFTP letter: a listener reconnected with a former colleague who has become negative, aggressive, and angry — bashing family, colleagues, and service workers, and refusing to stop talking politics.
From No. 554 · The Simple Life