" The phrase “It’s not brain surgery” will have died at his hand."

[smirkymonkey]

I lol'd when I read this one! Great op piece in the UK Guardian.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/06/ben-carson-us-presidency-brain-surgery

"Whatever happens to Ben Carson as far as the Republican nomination goes, he stands on the verge of making linguistic history. On current form, the former brain surgeon will have committed idiomicide by Christmas. The phrase “It’s not brain surgery” will have died at his hand. A steady hand, yes – but the one that wielded the knife.

As a noted historian of the Third Reich – he recently put it out there that gun control might have caused the Holocaust – Carson will know how much one man can do for a name. You didn’t get too many baby Adolfs being registered in the decades after 1945.

But to kill off an enduring popular phrase in the space of a few months is an achievement no one will be able to take away from the Detroit-born presidential hopeful, brilliantly described by the Nation as coming across “like a neurosurgeon who performed his own lobotomy”. This week’s intervention hastened the demise, with Carson restating his belief that the pyramids were not pharaonic tombs, as some crackpot Egyptologists claim. They were grain stores– and what’s more, they were built by Joseph of Technicolor Dreamcoat fame. Come on – this stuff isn’t brain surgery.

Admittedly, things did look shaky for “It’s not brain surgery” a few years back, at least on this side of the Atlantic. The abortive terrorist attack on Glasgow airport in 2007 was claimed by police to have been masterminded by a brain surgeon – yet you may recall it was primarily self-foiled, as the terrorists had failed to account for the fact the airport door was narrower than the Jeep they intended to storm it with. Photos of the burning vehicle stuck in the airport doors simply cried out for the caption: “Come on, Johnny al-Qaida: it’s not brain surgery.” more....

[99th_Monkey]

1. Now I guess saying "It's not rocket science" will need to do ..

[smirkymonkey]

2. Also, in the Guardian, check out the photos of his home.

He makes Trump look positively humble.

[Bluenorthwest]

3. I had thought of that. We are now stuck with 'It's not rocket science' as our only choice.

nt

[olddots]

4. isn't Ben a rocket surgeon ?

[smirkymonkey]

6. George W. Bush coined that term, I believe

[brush]

8. Hee hee! Good one.

[Hekate]

5. Soooo true. I do love the dry British humor.

[L. Coyote]

7. So much of prehistory needs rewriting now (pun intended)

[malaise]

9. Nice read

Rec

[3catwoman3]

10. "Idiomicide."

Great new word. I love it!

[valerief]

11. Here are his Seventh Day Wonders of the World

https://twitter.com/vedadalsette/status/663491531534372864

[DinahMoeHum]

12. A song: "It's Not Rocket Surgery"

http://jim-morrismusic.com/working-hard-to-do-nothing/

It’s not rocket surgery
No matter who you are
If you get the urgery to be a big star
You don’t have to be perfect
Like a member of the clergery
It’s no big deal to be a big wheel
It’s not rocket surgery

- Jim Morris / (c) 2010 Fish Head Music, Inc.