Cliche of the Week 120 – Rocket Science

Rocket science rates towards the cold, thin outer atmosphere when it comes to the journalistic difficulty scale.

In reality, the technical tricks which sent man to the Moon look primitive today compared to current scientific endeavours.

It’s not quantum physics?

“It’s no rocket science really; all you have to do is get on top of a cliff and throw yourself into the ice-cold water below,” (The Times of India, December 2).

“Launceston’s old man of youth street workers says that working with troubled kids is not rocket science,” (The Examiner, December 2).

“Playing Mozart isn’t exactly rocket science — although the great pianist Schnabel wisely observed that Wolfi was too easy for children, too difficult for adults,” (Bristol Evening Post, November 30).

“It’s not rocket science, they say. It’s a pretty straightforward plan: Get high, get rich and stay out of jail,” (Vancouver Province, November 29).

“It’s not rocket science but rocket boosters Britain needs from the Chancellor next week — not more tax breaks for millionaires,” (Scottish Daily Record, November 28).

“Managing properties and buildings is not exactly rocket science. Skills, knowledge and practice are needed,” (New Straits Times, November 28).

Cliché of the Week appears in The Australian newspaper Mondays. Chris Pash’s book, The Last Whale , a true story set in the 1970s about Australia’s last whaling station and the activists who fought to close it, was published by Fremantle Press in 2008.