E. C. (Gene) Ayres Blogspot

Lowell and Perry are at it again, sitting on the dock of the bay, Manatee Bay, having a toke, and Perry is morose as usual. This time it's about all the cigarette butts that have washed up on shore. "Leave it to Big Tobacco to trash the world," grumbles Perry. "You never saw a pot head who littered like this," he complains. "That's true," nods Lowell. "Unlike cigarettes, weed is au natural ." "I was down at Albertson's last week," says Perry, careful to stub out his joint and replace it in his pocket. "They have these Mexicans to sweep up the parking lot, but they miss a lot." "How do you mean?" asks Lowell, fishing out a netful of cigarette filters that have clustered around his dock piling. He's long since given up on catching any edible fish, but sometimes nets come in handy. "There was this stiff breeze coming in off the Gulf. It was blowing all this small stuff the sweepers miss up against t...

I picture my laid-back detective PI Tony Lowell hanging on the dock with his Native American pal Perry Garwood sharing some really good Panama Red, and also some really good Jamaican Red Stripe. Life is good. But Perry is bugged, as usual. "Tony," he says, "have you read about this situation in Washington State? Here we are in the middle of an eco-meltdown, eco-as in economy plus eco-as in ecology, a serious meltdown, and there's no money except in those banks getting all those bailouts." "Bail is important," notes Tony, deeply inhaling the still almost pristine Manatee River mist. "Innocent until proven guilty, remember? Plus, a lot of our clients depend on that. What's liberty without bail?" "Yeah, sure, OK, but here's the point. America's got 1/4 of all the prison inmates in the whole world." "Maybe it's because we have a lot of bad guys," suggests Lowell, reasonably. "Sure, but it's like, look ...