Dear LFTP: the $99 birthday bill and "Jesus always pays"
- Was it wrong to be taken aback when I was expected to split the cost of a friend's birthday dinner?
Mike reads a letter from a man invited to a friend's birthday dinner at a popular restaurant: after the birthday boy excused himself, the waiter presented the bill and the nine remaining guests were expected to split the celebration — $99 each — which the writer put on his card without comment and now wonders whether he misread a social norm. The room agrees it is a normal split, Boova notes the Biagi's-on-the-South-Side rule (bring wine, bring a book), and Mike retells Dave Herrick's advice from ten years back on this show: you have an angel investor — "you got Jesus and Jesus always pays" — so fight to be the generous one taking the bill.
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Jesus always pays
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