Martin Morse Wooster (mmwooster at yahoo dot com) asks:

I am trying to find the original source for this quotation: “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there’s be a shortage of sand.” This is commonly attributed to Milton Friedman BUT the oldest article I have found with this quote (from 1982) attributes it to William Rusher. I need to know the original source for this quote with a citation if possible.

If you can help, please contact Martin directly.

UPDATE: More evidence that NRO readers, collectively, know everything. Here’s the latest from Martin:

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE readers did their job!  The “Milton Friedman” quote I was looking for about the federal government taking over the Sahara was not written by Friedman.  It is in fact an old Soviet joke, whose first appearance was in NATIONAL REVIEW BULLETIN in 1971, which picked up the joke from the Swiss publication DIE WELTWOCHE.  The joke also appears in William F. Buckley’s CRUISING SPEED in 1971. Thanks to David Upham for tracking this down, and to Anatole Lokshin for passing on a good Soviet joke about health care.