Re: Betteridge's law...
Betteridge's law is of course that "if a news headline asks a question then the answer is 'no'", and is a frequently used joke in "Private Eye" magazine.
I haven't researched the situation that caught your eye in other instances of an interposed question (parenthetical or hyphenated), but a principle that might be tested and found consistently reliable is a "Better leave it out law."
A slightly related matter (without checking the actual statement for it) is whatever you call one word or perhaps phrase stuffed inside another one, like "abso-jolly-lutely", which I cleaned up. I think Stephen Fry mentioned it on a "QI", and yes those are lovingly transcribed online somewhere, but I don't remember the actual example given, and in fact I think it was bleeped.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
