By:  Edwards                                                      H.R. No. 2316



R E S O L U T I O N
	WHEREAS, Texas is home to numerous authors and poets who have 
earned international acclaim for their work, but one of our state's 
most unique and prolific authors, Missy Jones Thistlewood, remains 
unknown to all but a few devotees of her unusual literary milieu; 
and
	WHEREAS, Melissa Elizabeth Jones was born in Lubbock in 1912, 
and while growing up on her family's cotton farm, she could hardly 
have guessed the unusual turns her life would take; she began dating 
Arthur Thistlewood while the two were still in high school, and 
despite admonitions from friends about the nature of her future 
name, she married him soon after graduation; and
	WHEREAS, Mrs. Melissa Elizabeth Thistlewood then endured 
much good-natured teasing from family and friends about her 
difficult name, and this initiated her lifelong fascination with 
tongue twisters; when the economic pressures of the Great 
Depression made it difficult for her and Arthur to support their two 
young children, Mrs. Missy Thistlewood put her hobby to good use, 
and with money borrowed from her parents, she published her first 
book of tongue twisters; and
	WHEREAS, From such seemingly simple sentences as "Plain bun, 
plum bun, bun without plum" to the more difficult "There was a 
little witch which switched from Chichester to Ipswich" to the 
fiendishly difficult "Miss Smith's fish-sauce shop seldom sells 
shellfish," Mrs. Thistlewood's book included a vast collection of 
alliterative literary twists and onomatopoeic monstrosities, and 
it quickly became a tremendous success; and
	WHEREAS, To this day, her favorite creation is the one that 
was inspired by a variation of her own name; for the past 60 years, 
generations of American children have struggled to recite:  
"Theophilus Thadeus Thistledown, the successful thistly-sifter, 
while sifting a sieve-full of unsifted thistles, thrust three 
thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb; Now, if 
Theophilus Thadeus Thistledown, the successful thistle-sifter, 
thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb, See 
that thou, while sifting a sieve-full of unsifted thistles, thrust 
not three thousand thistles through the thick of thy thumb"; and
	WHEREAS, Mrs. Melissa Elizabeth Thistlewood, if she were in 
fact a real person, would undoubtedly join the Texas House of 
Representatives in lauding the elocutionary expertise and 
pronouncedly proficient pronunciation with which our reading 
clerks have read this resolution and thousands of other legislative 
documents in the course of the 79th Legislative Session, and it is 
to be hoped they will accept this good-natured tribute as an 
expression of deepest appreciation and esteem from the members of 
this chamber; now, therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 79th Texas 
Legislature hereby honor Elisa Klein and Brian Gehr for their 
dedicated service as reading clerks and extend to them warmest best 
wishes for continued success and happiness in all their future 
endeavors; and, be it further
	RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be 
prepared for this dynamic duo as an expression of highest regard by 
the Texas House of Representatives.