A Stanley cup can save your life. Ladies, would your man do that for you?
An Ohio woman recently went viral after her steel Stanley tumbler deflected a stray bullet and saved her life. But here in the South Carolina Lowcountry, where ice melts faster, Stanley is going to be the death of me.
She stands frantically in the bedroom that looks like a Tannerite explosion occurred inside a Goodwill clothes closet –bras, blouses and bottoms scattered everywhere.
“Have you seen my brush?” She yells at the kid, “Help Mommy find her good bra!”
“Honey!” she calls, “I’m running late! Will you go get Stanley? I need all my stuff out the car - my Stanley cup, my purse, the makeup bag, the lunch bag…”
That’s right, I have one of those wives who basically abandons her vehicle and everything in it when she comes home, waltzing in the door carefree and hands empty. Only to ask her husband to run outside and fetch her stuff at 6 a.m. the next day.
“You know,” I state the logically obvious but now useless fact, “If you bring all of your stuff in the house every afternoon, it will be right here waiting on you in the morning, and our whole day will go a lot smoother.”
I glance outside. Yesterday was perfect purse-fetching weather. This morning, it is dark, ominous, stormy. Torrential rain begins to fall, interrupted only by the gale-force winds and the occasional ping-pong ball-sized hail. I can’t tell if the crashing noise nearby is the sound of trees falling or downed power lines. A message flashes on the bottom of the TV screen – school is cancelled – and suddenly an alarm on my phone warns that lightning strikes have been reported in my area and there may be a tornado…
I start to complain, I try to “mansplain,” but…
The impatient wife begins listing all of the “silly” things she has to do for me. Sex, clean clothes, and hot, home-cooked meals top the list, of course. Then she to pay my Netflix bill, and program my cell phone, and download my apps…
When she gets down to “being the only one who remembers to shop for my mother’s birthday,” I rush outside into the elements, as much suicide attempt – let’s just get it all over with! – as husbandly duty.
I return, dripping precipitation, holding her bags and the Stanley cup like a good boy.
“What, no ice?” She asks. “No fresh water?”
The Coven of the Cup
Around the country there are others of her cult, scattered across America but joined by a common grail, staggering out the door ready for another day of work and hydration with their Stanley tumblers clutched tightly in hand. The coven of the cup, the “Sisterhood of the Stanley,” as The New York Times called them.
To quote the NYT, “Lately, a new vessel has found its way into the hands, and onto the social media feeds, of the well hydrated: the Adventure Quencher Travel Tumbler from Stanley, a 109-year-old brand that specializes in camping gear and outdoor accessories. It has become the model of choice among a lot of millennial and Gen Z women…”
The current Stanley fad all started when “social media influencers” began sharing photos of their Stanleys, and now the hashtag #StanleyTumbler has more than ten million views on TikTok alone, says NYT. The cups are “flying off the shelves of Target and Starbucks. Reports of people camping out overnight or getting in fights while jockeying for space in line when a new tumbler drops maintain a steady stream on social media…”
Stanley may keep you fashionable, give you a reason to shop, and keep your drinks cold for 24 hours, ladies, but did you know “he” could also save your life?
Stanley, saving lives since 1913
A woman in Steubenville, Ohio, identified only as Rachel, says that on Feb. 12, 2024, her cream-colored Stanley cup deflected a stray bullet that entered her house, saving her life.
Rachel, who obviously lives in a rough neighborhood, posted a TikTok video that quickly went viral, then gave interviews with The New York Post, USA Today, and other papers.
"I'm convinced Stanleys are immortal 💀," one viewer commented on the TikTok video.
In November 2023, another woman posted a TikTok claiming that her Stanley survived a fire that destroyed her car, and further claimed that the next day the cup still had ice in it.
But Stanley cups have been saving lives and improving our quality of life since 1913, when scientist and electric pioneer William Stanley Jr. invented the all-steel, double-wall vacuum bottle. Stanley, a holder of more than 100 patents and a contemporary of George Westinghouse, is credited with perfecting the first electrical transformer and establishing an alternating current system that led to widespread electricity use.
Since then generations of people have come to rely on their Stanley bottles, mugs, lunchboxes, coolers, flasks and more. Stanley products have traveled to factories and farms from coast to coast as American men and women built this nation, and U.S. pilots even flew combat missions with their Stanleys by their side in the cockpit during World War II.
There are even legends, claims the company’s website, that a Stanley cup once saved two campers from a ravaging grizzly bear. Hence the picture of Stan the Bear on every cup.
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Ladies, would a man stop a bullet for you, or fight off a marauding bear?
Probably not. He’s too busy fetching all your Stanley products and your purse from the car and complaining every time you ask him to put ice in your cup.
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