[Ads-l] Stix Nix Hix Pix

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Sun Jul 16 00:41:46 UTC 2023


The Quote Investigator article on this topic is now available.

Headline Origin: Sticks Nix Hick Pix
https://quoteinvestigator.medium.com/57d3470178ee
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2023/07/15/sticks-nix/

Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Jonathan Lighter whose discussion of
this topic led QI to formulate this question and perform this
exploration. Lighter found citations for a variant and remarked on the
difference from the original.

Feedback welcome
Garson

On Sat, Jul 15, 2023 at 5:43 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Jonathan Lighter  wrote:
> > _Variety_ (I believe) has also referred to film critics as "crix."
> > So....you could have
> >
> >  "CRIX NIX CHIX PIX" as well as "HIX PIX NIX CRIX,"  "HIX, CHIX NIX CRIX
> > PIX," and "CRIX NIX HIX FLIX CHIX."
>
> Here is an example with Crix:
>
> Date: May 9, 2005
> Periodical: Variety
> Volume 398, Issue 12
> Article: HBO, Variety forge 'Pix' pact
> Author: Anonymous
> Database: ProQuest
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Titled "Crix Nix Hix Pix," the doc will be based on the book of the
> same name by Variety editor-in-chief Peter Bart and published by
> Miramax Books in conjunction with Variety's 100th anniversary.
> Title stems from one of Variety's most famous headlines ("Sticks Nix Hick Pix").
> [End excerpt]
>
> I cannot find a match for that book title in WorldCat. So I think Bart
> changed the book name before publication.
> Garson

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