RHETORICAL QUESTIONS

By Dan Miller
February 12, 2008

Where would we be without rhetorical questions?

Like that one.

I don't really expect anyone can, or should, attempt to explain, literally, where we'd be without rhetorical questions.
But, they are helpful -- as greetings, or to make a point -- even though we don't actually want them answered.

The next time you pass someone in the hallway and say, "How's everything going?"... think about this.
How long would you be standing there if that person decided to really do it..... to really tell you how "everything" is going?
(Actually, that's a rhetorical question as well)

Don't we all agree it would be impossible to raise a child without the use of rhetorical questions?
"How many times am I going to have to tell you to stop slamming that door?"

I can't help but grin when I recall years ago, our former news director Mike Kettenring asked his (then) 3 or 4 year old son Christopher, "How many times do I have to tell you to stop unrolling all the toilet paper from the roll?"
His son sheepishly looked at him and replied, "Three more times." I guess he figured his dad wanted something specific.

By the way, in case you're wondering about that punctuation mark shown next to this essay.... it's called an "interrobang".... combining the exclamation mark and the question mark.
It was introduced by a man named Martin K. Speckler in 1962.

He figured it could be used at the end of those rhetorical exclamation/questions we all utter from time to time, like, "You did WHAT?!"
Or, "Why are you so stupid?!"
Or, "You call that a car?!"
It seems like a pretty good idea to me.

From what I've learned in my brief research, 'interrobang' caught the attention of various publishers when it was first introduced 46 years ago.... but no one expects it to become a regular feature on computer keyboards.
That's too bad, it could be quite useful.
I'd use it here, but it's not offered on my computer font list.
But, what're you gonna do?

When will people stop asking all these rhetorical questions?

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