"not rocket science/not brain surgery"

[Tom Dalzell]

"I think this so-called intelligence factor is being a bit overrated,"
said Healy.  "let's face it, this isn't brain surgery."
Washington Post, 27 July 1980, page E1

Tom Dalzell

Sam Clements wrote:

>Nothing helpful in the archives about the origins of these similar phrases, which refer to how simple something is.
>
>Usenet only comes up with the phrase(s) from about 1990.
>
>Proquest offers a 1981 NYTimes review of books by Thomas Philbin, and an interview with him.  He says, in the interview, "I have more than the usual complement of thumbs.  I think of myself as a writer-editor of this stuff more than an expert craftsman.  But I can fix a screen.  I can fix a light.  This stuff is not brain surgery."
>
>Can anyone find an earlier example of "not brain surgery/not rocket science" to mean what it did in that interview?
>
>Was there an earlier phrase which defined the same sentiment?
>
>Sam Clements
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org