"?" mark in URL

doing a rewrite with a "?" mark in the url

[fjpapaleo]

Ok, I know the whole point of doing all this is to have URLz without question marks but, I'm using a dynamic form to query a mysql database with a fetch_array. I can't see any way of writing the URL without the question mark.
I'm sure it can be done but it's probably way over my head and I really don't want to rewrite my entire site.
(feel free to correct me here)
ie; category-topic.php?article=news+item

I CAN write category-topic?article-news+item.html
which is slightly better but my .htaccess re-write won't work with the? mark in the string.

Two questions:
(1)Any way to do a rewrite with a? in the URL?
And (2) Is it even worth it? That is, I'll still have URL's with "?' in them which is liable to keep them from getting indexed.

As usual, any help is greatly appreciated.

Ok, link added in profile if that will help anybody.

[jdMorgan]

This thread [webmasterworld.com] may help you get started. There are dozens of other variations of this problem disccussed here, if this one's not the most appropriate example.

Jim