==> On Wed, 02 Feb 2005 01:56:18 -0600, Corwin Brust <corwin at mpls.cx> said: > asr at ufl.edu wrote: >> "Demands the question" could work, I might even go so near as "pleads for the >> question", to evoke the image the author probably desired, of 'just begging >> that any observer ask this obvious question'. > Perhaps "begs for the question", though I think one reason "begs the > question" is misused so often is that neither your alternatives nor the one > I've offered seems to roll quite as trippingly off the tongue. OTOH I think > "raises the question" is fairly smooth. Yeah, I think 'raises' is probably most effective here. If you want to emphasize it you can do something pratchett-esqe like "Raises it all the way to orbit, in fact", or "Raises it so high that it decides that all the other questions look like ants scurrying around down there". - Allen S. Rout