Henderson shows the ridiculously backwards priorities of Detroit in his recent article of the elderly couple and their ordeal with their garbage can. He does this by primarily using sarcastic tone. When writing about being ticketed for leaving their garbage can out a day late he uses saracsm by saying, "The nerve! It was time to crack down." This was an obvious use of sarcasm when contrasted with his first few paragraphs about how upstanding they were as citizens. The reader can hear a sarcastic voice saying that sentence, and it contributes to the tone because the reader's feel how exasperated Henderson feels. Henderson also says that they were ticketed by "an over-eager pencil-pusher". Here, his choice of words show his sarcastic tone. He goes on to describe the condition of the neighborhood, and made a good point when he observed that the trees being trimmed but the garbage and abandoned houses not being tended to. His sarcastic tone shows his effectiveness because the reader feels his irritation about this story. This could have easily been a dry, boring, non-descriptive article, but instead he makes it engaging (by using sarcasm) and he also has a point in writing this. After reading this, the reader goes away knowing exactly what Henderson was trying to say and he did this by using the this story.