Hang your balls

EDMONTON -- If you've got a really big truck, you might need really big balls.

That's behind a growing fad hitting Edmonton streets.

Made from hard plastic, the big, dangling testicles are being found tied beneath the rear bumpers of local trucks - by picture-hanging wire, zip ties and shoelaces.

"Putting male genitalia on your truck ... makes it a man truck, instead of any old truck," said Amy Kaler, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Alberta.

"I don't think it's rocket science. People take their genitals as kind of being the core of sexual identity. Kaler said it's "likely a pretty tongue-in-cheek" take on the way people treat their vehicles "as though they were persons. I'd be really surprised if guys who put these on their trucks really, genuinely, think that people will look at this and think, 'Wow, he's well-endowed.' "

And retailers - there aren't many in Edmonton yet - say women are buying the big balls, which come in different colors, including brass and chrome.

"It's red-neck Alberta," said one retailer at Tonka 4-Wheel Drive Ltd., who didn't want her name used. We brought them up on a gag last Christmas and we've ordered quite a few. They've been selling like hotcakes."

The balls run from $40 to $50. There are smaller nuts available, too, for motorcycles.