hauling cement to Mars

[Barnhart]

I knew this phrase rung a bell.

Compare The Barnhart Dictionary Companion (Vol. 11.3, 1999) entry for red
brick

red brick, ... In the expression send a red brick to Mars, to do something
unnecessary or redundant.  Compare carry coals to Newcastle (OED: a1661)
....

Regards,
David

Barnhart at highlands.com


Barnhart on Thursday, August 11, 2005 at 8:35 AM -0500 wrote:
>My mistake:
>
>Here is the bibliographic information that I omitted:
>
>NASA to Launch Orbiter With New Tools
>
>By MIKE SCHNEIDER
>The Associated Press
>Thursday, August 11, 2005; 2:46 AM
>
>Found on Google News.
>
>Regards,
>David
>
>barnhart at highlands.com
>
>American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on Thursday, August 11,
>2005 at 8:30 AM -0500 wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Barnhart <barnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM>
>Subject:      hauling cement to Mars
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>The 21st century version of carry coals to Newcastle:
>
>"We don't want to be hauling cement to Mars. That's very expensive," said
>project scientist Richard Zurek of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
>Pasadena, Calif. "Better to know what we can make on the surface of the
>planet."
>
>David
>barnhart at highlands.com
>