The Tuesday Weld

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Here is the first installment in The Tuesday Weld, a weekly look at iconic Baltimore products, places and people.

At a stoplight outside the Beltway comes a Mini Cooper decorated like a box of fireworks. Atop the car is a giant pink and yellow Big Boyz Bail Bonds pen, looking at first like a guided missile. You imagine The Jolly Green Giant making bail: Big Boyz: “OK, Mr. Giant, just sign here.” Jolly Green Giant: “Ho, ho, ho!” Big Boyz: “No—not with that pen!” Look up the word “ubiquitous” in the dictionary and you’ll see a picture of the pink and yellow Big Boyz pen. Then you think: But why flood the world with a tchotchke promoting a service for such a small niche market? How many people in the Baltimore area could actually need to post bail each year? "It’s marketing,” one of the Big Boyz, who’s normal size, tells me. Well, yeah. But 500,000 pens…

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