Here’s a great site that answers a handful of those nagging, rhetorical questions we hear all our lives. Most of them are from the lyrics of familiar songs. Al Jaffe of MAD would be proud.
There’s a better explanation here about Mr. Gradgrind and the origin of the site courtesy of NPR.
I also did think of and mailed a question for Mr. Gradgrind today. For years Nick Lowe has asked “what’s so funny about peace, love and understanding?” even though most think Elvis Costello did.
Update Jul. 17, 2007: The keeper of Mr. Gradgrind’s site responded last night, I was a tad bummed that he probably won’t have an answer to Nick Lowe’s big question.
“Thanks to all of you who wrote in response to my interview with Scott Simon on NPR. The Gradgrind page received about 2200 new hits as a result. If you sent a suggestion: thanks, but I am not working on any new entries. Most of my energy (and the work of my arthritic typing hands) goes into my Common Errors in English site.
As a bonus, you can read about “rhetorical questions” there at http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/rhetorical.html. You may note that some of Mr. Gradgrind’s questions are not true rhetorical ones.
My apologies for the mass mailing. I couldn’t answer all the e-mails individually.
Cheers,
Paul Brians
Professor of English
Washington State University”