READER RESPONDS to wherefore (HWAIR-for) adverb: For what reason? noun: Reason or purpose. From Middle English, a combination of where + for. The word often appears in the phrase "the whys and wherefores (of something)", meaning its reasons. First recorded use: c. 1200.
A little funny regarding wherefore. Its most famous use is by Shakespeare: "Wherefore art thou Romeo?", meaning why did you have to be named Romeo Montague, of a rival family, rather than some name such as Valentino Rossi, where we could just get married without any family problems. Some fatuous "scholar" several years ago (maybe 15? 20?) published a dumbed-down sort of Shakespeare for Dummies and translated this line as "Where are you, Romeo?" I would guess he had some hired hack do the translating on the cheap and never reviewed the work that he slapped his name to. He was interviewed on NPR and ambushed with this ghastly error, and it was delicious to hear him hem and haw trying to explain it away while the interviewer was not letting him off the hook for a moment. NPR is such a treasure. I also note (as I just checked rather than rely on memory) that Shakespeare's original is properly punctuated in that it does not have a comma before Romeo, as the wherefore means "why" rather than "where."

This is your brain on metaphors by Robert Sapolsky
Symbols, metaphors, analogies, parables, synecdoche, figures of speech: we understand them. We understand that a captain wants more than just hands when he orders all of them on deck. We understand that Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” isn’t really about a cockroach. If we are of a certain theological ilk, we see bread and wine intertwined with body and blood. We grasp that the right piece of cloth can represent a nation and its values, and that setting fire to such a flag is a highly charged act. We can learn that a certain combination of sounds put together by Tchaikovsky represents Napoleon getting his butt kicked just outside Moscow. And that the name “Napoleon,” in this case, represents thousands and thousands of soldiers dying cold and hungry, far from home. Much more at: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/this-is-your-brain-on-metaphors/

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy organization, says no one should eat olestra, and why Canada and the United Kingdom banned it. But it’s legal here – and you’ll find it in foods like low- or non-fat chips, crackers and cookies. Procter & Gamble, which sells olestra under the name Olean, says that nearly 6.5 million servings of foods containing Olean have been consumed since 1996, the year the FDA approved olestra for U.S. use. Olestra isn’t the only banned substance that Americans are noshing on. Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, or rBGH (commonly sold under the name Posilac), a synthetic hormone injected into cows to stimulate milk production, pops up in many dairy-based snacks like ice cream. Not in the European Union or Canada, where it has been banned. See three-page article at: http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/for-the-home/10-things-snack-food-companies-wont-say/

Images of Gothic revival houses
Salem, MA http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/19th/goth_hs.jpg
"Wedding Cake House" Kennebunkport, ME http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/19th/wedding.jpg
Weaver Castle Selma, AL
http://selmaala.blogspot.com/2007/08/weaver-castle.html

Gothic bridges
The Brooklyn Bridge took fourteen years to complete. The Gothic structure was designed by the architectural firm of John Augustus Roebling of Trenton, New Jersey, who had built similar but smaller bridges in Cincinnati and Waco, Texas. To compensate for the rough Atlantic weather, Mr. Roebling designed the bridge to stand up to forces six times worse than he thought it would have to face. The plan was a good one, as the bridge stands long after later bridges have failed. Mr. Roebling took ill shortly after construction began and died several days later. His son, Washington, took up the project, but he too fell ill, and it was Washington's wife, Emily, who visited the site regularly and relayed her husband's wishes, despite her lack of engineering training.
http://travel.lovetoknow.com/wiki/New_York_City_Travel:_The_Brooklyn_Bridge

One of the most beautiful Gothic bridges is the Charles’ Bridge. It was built to cross Vltava River in 1357 as the only connection between Old Town and the Prague Castle. http://www.thetravelerszone.com/travel-destinations/9-most-famous-bridges-in-the-world/

Quote Words differently arranged have different meanings, and meanings differently arranged have a different effect. Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (1623-1662)

"Kill it and grill it!" says Sean Morton, superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, a 3,900-square-mile National Park that is entirely underwater. The park is licensing hundreds of scuba divers to exterminate red lionfish in "no-take" areas where other fishing and spearing isn't permitted. "We want people to get out there and kill as many as possible," he says.
The voracious species is breeding by the thousands, gorging on tropical fish near coral reefs and rapidly spreading from the Bahamas and Florida up to the Carolinas. The reddish-striped fish snarfs up nearly anything it can swallow, from crabs to shrimp to angelfish and other species divers like to see. Its prickly, venom-tipped spines fan out around its body and deter sharks and other predators. Now, the hunt for red lionfish is heating up. The nonprofit Reef Environmental Education Foundation hosted its third "Lionfish Derby" over the weekend in the Florida Keys and handed out $3,350 in prize money to teams that brought in the most fish—109 were killed. Two derbies in the Bahamas the past two years netted more than 2,000 lionfish. Near scuba spots, divers are increasingly submerging with spears, nets and protective gloves to try to battle the intruder—although divers say they still get stung through gloves. Websites, YouTube videos and Facebook pages describe how to catch and cook it. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704658204575610721532882174.html