June 30, 2025

Disney Sports Bra Controversy, Treasury Kills the Penny, Lincoln Artifacts Auction

Show Notes
Transcript

A Disney World visitor gets kicked off a ride for wearing a sports bra and forced to buy a forty-five dollar tank top, the Treasury Department finally pulls the plug on the penny after losing millions, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Foundation auctions off historic artifacts including bloodstained gloves.

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Callaroga Shark Media from Washington, DC, Where a nickel for

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your thoughts. This is ballot.

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That's right, three coins in a fountain is going to

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cost fifteen cents.

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Now, let's hit this.

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I'm Patrick Gutfield, and the Treasury Department announced they're finally

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pulling the plug on the penny, and honestly, it's about time.

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This little copper plated disaster has been costing US three

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point sixty nine cents to make for every one cent

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it's worth. That's like paying four dollars for a one

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dollar bill and calling it fiscal responsibility. President Trump ordered

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the Treasury to stop making pennies as a cost saving measure,

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which makes sense when you realize we've been basically lighting

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fifty six million dollars on fire every year just to

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keep these things in production, and the cost keeps going up.

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Ten years ago, it only cost one point three cents

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to make a penny. Now it's nearly four cents at

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this rate. By twenty thirty, we'll be spending a quarter

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to make each penny. The mint is going to keep

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cranking them out until they run out of the metal blanks,

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which sounds like the world's most expensive going out of

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business sale, everything must go. We're literally losing money on

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every transaction. Here's the kicker. There are still one hundred

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fourteen billion pennies floating around out there. One hundred and

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fourteen billion. That's enough pennies to build a copper plated

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bridge to financial ruin. But once they stop making new ones,

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businesses are going to have to start rounding everything to

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the nearest nickel. And speaking of nickels, those aren't exactly

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bargains either. Each five cent nickel costs thirteen point seven

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eight cents to produce, so we're spending nearly fourteen cents

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to make something worth five cents. The only thing more

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expensive would be if we started minting monopoly money. The

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penny has been falling out of favor for years. Production

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dropped from over nine billion coins in twenty fifteen to

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just three billion last year. Even Americans, who will argue

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about literally anything, seem to agree that the penny is pointless.

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It's the political compromise nobody asked for, but everyone can

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live with. So farewell, penny. You were the participation trophy

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of currency technically worth something, but nobody really wanted you

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cluttering up their pockets. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Foundation is

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auctioning off one hundred and forty four items from their

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collection to pay off debts, and honestly, this feels like

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watching your favorite uncle sell the family heirlooms to cover

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his gambling losses. The foundation bought this twenty five million

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dollar collection back in two thousand and seven with a

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two million dollar donation and a twenty three million dollar loan.

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They figured they'd pay it.

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Back through private donations, which is the nonprofit equivalent of

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buying a house and hoping to win the lottery to

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make the mortgage payments. Seven years ago, they were still

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nine point seven million dollars in debt and had to

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resort to a GoFundMe campaign. A go Fundme for Abraham

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Lincoln artifacts, they raised thirty five thousand dollars, which in

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the world of presidential memorabilia is basically finding loose change

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in your couch cushions.

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Maybe they could use some pennies.

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Now they're selling off the crown jewels, including Lincoln's bloodstained

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gloves from the night he was assassinated at Ford's Theater.

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Those gloves are estimated to sell for up to one

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point two million dollars. Think about that, someone's going to

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buy the gloves that Lincoln was carrying when John Wilkes

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Booth shot him. That's either the most meaningful piece of

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American history you could own or the most morbid coffee

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table conversation starter ever. The collection also includes a page

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from Lincoln's childhood some Book from eighteen twenty four, with

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the earliest known example of his handwriting. Fourteen year old

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Abraham wrote, Abraham Lincoln is my name, and with my

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pen I wrote the same. I wrote in both haste

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and speed, and left it here for fools to read.

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Even as a teenager, Lincoln had better comic timing than

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most late night hosts. Here's my favorite item, a manuscript

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of Lincoln's spoonerisms, wordplay jokes where he'd transposed parts of

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words for laughs. He wrote about writing bass ackwards on

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a jassack and breaking his pishing foal. The future great

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emancipator was basically doing dad jokes in the eighteen hundreds.

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That manuscript is valued between two hundred thousand and three

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hundred thousand dollars.

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Luise Tapper, who originally.

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Donated these items, told Chicago Public Radio she's appalled by

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the auction. She wanted these historic pieces to stay in

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public view, not disappear into some billionaire's private collection where

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they'll gather dust next to their monet and their vintage wine.

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So we're about to watch pieces of Lincoln's life get

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scattered to the highest bidders, because nothing says preserving American

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history quite like putting it up on eBay with a

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really fancy auction house. Well, this is a story that

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puts the magic in Magic Kingdom. Nicole Arena went to

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Disney World wearing a sports bra and leggings, you know,

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the kind of outfit people where to exercise, which at

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Disney basically means running from ride to ride while carrying

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a forty five dollars pretzel. Nicole and her husband were

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having a great day at Epcot, rushing around like they

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were training for the Olympics of fun. They even accidentally

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waited in the wrong line for the Frozen ride, which,

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let's be honest, happens to everyone because Disney's line system

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is more confusing than assembling ikea furniture while blindfolded. After

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waiting an hour an hour, they finally reached the front

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of the line and that's when a Disney employee suddenly

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decides Nicole's sports bra is improper. Now, Nicole says her

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outfit was no more revealing than what other guests were wearing,

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which raises the question what exactly were the other guests

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wearing medieval armor. The employees suggests Nicole leave the line

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after waiting an hour, remember to buy a T shirt.

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So Nicole, being a reasonable person who just wants to

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ride a ride about a cartoon snowman, goes and buys

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a forty five dollars tank top. Forty five dollars for

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a tank top. That's not Disney magic, that's Disney Highway robbery.

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Here's the best part. When they return with the new shirt,

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a manager admits they never should have been.

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Stopped at the front of the line in the first place.

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The manager says any dress code issues should have been

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addressed at security or when they first approach the ride.

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So basically, oops are bad, here's your wasted hour and

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your overpriced shirt back, and did Disney compensate them? Nicole

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says she felt brushed off, which is apparently the official

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Disney response to we messed up. It's the customer service

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equivalent of have a magical day while shrugging. So remember everyone,

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when you visit the happiest place on Earth, make sure

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you're dressed appropriately. Apparently, sports brought are too scandalous for

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a place where grown adults wait three hours to hug

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a person in a mouse costume. Portions of today's show

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were made with the help of Ai