Judy Hellas

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

Life advice from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (b otd 1749):
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”

[nxthompson @nxthompson]

"The FDNY lost 343 men on September 11; 65 of their sons and daughters now serve in the department."

This story is incredible. https://t.co/iqlCpSITZg

[Igor Sabino @igorhsabino]

Ten years ago, Brazilian journalist Rodrigo Alvarez reported on the persecution of Christians in Gaza.

Now, he reveals that Hamas threatened him over that report.

My latest for The Times of Israel: 👇

https://t.co/ccgmu8PZdn

[Judy Hellas @Judyhellas]

@simonmontefiore I think reading print on a page is far more restoring to the nervous system than reading words on a screen . And then there’s the smell and feel of the paper and the sound of turning the pages …

[Fania Oz-Salzberger 🇮🇱🕊️🟣 פניה עוז-זלצברגר @faniaoz]

"A messianic, obtuse and cruel sect, an armed mob of gangsters, criminals against humanity, sadists, pogromists and murderers, who emerged from a dark corner of Judaism, from the cellars of depravity and filth, in order to impose a bloodthirsty and insane cult."

Amos Oz, “In the name of love and peace”
Speech delivered at a Peace Now rally in Tel Aviv, 1989

[Hen Mazzig @HenMazzig]

Hours after her passing, the Wikipedia page of Dolly Parton was vandalized, leaving a swastika and "Jew Lover" prominently displayed.

Dolly Parton meant so much to everyone, including me. She was kind, warm, and treated everyone with humanity. For some, treating Jews with that same humanity is a crime.

The edits have since been removed, but to desecrate a page on someone who has just passed is beyond depraved, whether or not you liked her.

[Judy Hellas @Judyhellas]

@Hereticus3 @TimGuile @HWallingford85 @DominicSelwood @BruvverEccles @ClarkeMicah @holysmoke He certainly died after having murdered a third of the six women he married so there is that

[Judy Hellas @Judyhellas]

@Dickeherr @TimGuile @HWallingford85 @DominicSelwood @BruvverEccles @ClarkeMicah @holysmoke So the fact he executed Protestant reformers doesn’t speak to you in any way ?

[Judy Hellas @Judyhellas]

@TimGuile @HWallingford85 @DominicSelwood @BruvverEccles @ClarkeMicah @holysmoke I’m sorry to hear that- he seems to have written some other really interesting books too.

[Judy Hellas @Judyhellas]

@TimGuile @HWallingford85 @DominicSelwood @BruvverEccles @ClarkeMicah @holysmoke It’s on my to buy list funnily enough. I’ll get it ordered

[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

In 1988 Dolly Parton pulled every 7th and 8th grader in Sevier County into a room and told them to pick a buddy.

She made them sign a contract.. if BOTH graduate, she hands you both $500. One fails, nobody gets paid.

The county dropout rate went from 35% to 6%.

She handed out the checks herself.

In 1989 she offered $500 to every kid in the county who wanted to go to the local college.

When Gatlinburg burned in 2016, she sent 900 families $1,000 a month for six months.

You've probably heard that part.

Here's the part you haven't:

The fund raised more than expected, so she showed up in May and handed every one of those families another $5,000 on top.

Then she quietly put $3 million into the recovery group that handles the years after the news trucks leave.

She built her county an entire hospital.

She played a benefit concert in 2007, Dollywood and the Stampede matched it, and LeConte Medical Center opened in 2010 with a birthing unit and a women's center in it.

In 2022 she started covering 100% of tuition, books, and fees for Dollywood employees.

Full-time, part-time, AND seasonal.

In 1991 she paid for a bald eagle sanctuary because the birds couldn't be released back into the wild, no press release.

And when Hurricane Helene came through here in Western North Carolina, she wrote a personal check for $1 million and her companies matched it.

She didn't owe North Carolina anything, but she helped us anyway.

She started the Imagination Library because her daddy couldn't read or write. Before he passed, he told her it was the most important thing she ever did.

Rest in Peace, Dolly 🇺🇸

[Judy Hellas @Judyhellas]

@TimGuile @HWallingford85 @DominicSelwood @BruvverEccles @ClarkeMicah @holysmoke He fell out with the pope but his essential theological belief system was Catholic - transubstantiation, the communion of saints, the Virgin Mary’s role in salvation as mediator. There was absolutely nothing he had in common with the Protestant reformers

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

The doctor who delivered Dolly Parton in a one-room Tennessee cabin in 1946 was paid with a sack of cornmeal. Her father farmed other people's land and could not read or write. Eighty years later, the reading program she built in his name has mailed more than 300 million books.

She wrote "I Will Always Love You" on the same afternoon she wrote "Jolene," as a goodbye to Porter Wagoner, and released it in 1974. Elvis wanted it. The night before the session, Colonel Tom Parker called and said Presley would only record it if they got half the publishing, meaning half of everything the song ever earned. She had been in Nashville ten years by then. She said no, and cried all night. Whitney Houston cut her version in 1992, held number one for fourteen weeks, and Forbes later put Parton's royalties from it near $10 million. She put some of that money into an office complex in Nashville and called the place the house that Whitney built.

Dollywood opened in Pigeon Forge in 1986 because she wanted paychecks in the county she came from. Around 4,000 people work there now. Three million visitors come every year. The University of Tennessee put its economic impact at $1.8 billion, and it is the largest employer in Sevier County. Since 2022 the company has paid tuition, fees, and books in full for every worker from their first day, seasonal hires included.

Wildfires tore through those mountains in November 2016, killing fourteen people and destroying more than 2,400 buildings. Her foundation was handing out money within 48 hours. Every family that lost a home got $1,000 a month for six months, regardless of income. The final check was $5,000. Total delivered: $8.9 million.

In April 2020 she sent $1 million to Vanderbilt for coronavirus research. When Moderna's vaccine results ran in the New England Journal of Medicine that November, her fund appeared in the footnotes.

Carl Dean, her husband of nearly sixty years, died in March 2025. The note she wrote to fans afterward ended with the same five words she wrote for Porter Wagoner back in 1974. She died in Nashville today. Her family asked that instead of flowers, people give to the Imagination Library, which still mails 3.4 million books a month to children who will never get to meet her.

[𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖_𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @SundaeDivine]

Dolly Parton proved you could have big hair, a bigger heart, a brilliant mind and no patience for anyone who underestimated you. She gave us timeless songs, millions of free books to kids, and enough wit and rhinestones to light up Tennessee. Heaven just got a lot more glamorous.

[Helen Day @LBFlyawayhome]

I feel I should post a #DollyParton tribute this evening, but I can’t think of a direct Ladybird connection.
So this is my oblique offering

#9to5
Artist: Ron Embleton

[Judy Hellas @Judyhellas]

@RoyalMail - I sent a 2nd class large letter paid £1.55 & attached label to the correct envelope. It weighed less than 100g. You tried to charge my buyer £6.20 claiming I had not paid enough postage. I paid 6.20 to get it back and no staff will answer your phones. Advise plz!

[Allison Pearson @AllisonPearson]

This is deeply upsetting.

Police were so desperate to prove Henry Nowak was a racist, even after his murder, they went back years to texts he sent as a kid.

Shame on them.
@HantsPolice

[Judy Hellas @Judyhellas]

@ladygreenkirtle @DrFrancisYoung Yes. It was the Driftway

[Hamza @HowidyHamza]

Good to see @amnesty reporting on Hama's extrajudicial executions of Gazans.
Amnesty cited a recent UN report that identified 249 cases of extrajudicial executions and severe physical violence in Gaza between August 2024 and January 2026.

The condemnation should not stem only from the fact that there is no proper investigation and due process into such cases or the fact that Hamas has a habit of labeling anyone who criticizes them or October the 7th as a "collaborator", then executing him, but also from the fact that Hamas has no authority whatsoever in Palestine, not to mention that capital punishment is against Palestinian law.

[Judy Hellas @Judyhellas]

If Israel can hunt Hamas terrorists to the ends of the earth for terrorism against its citizens then they should also protect these communities. Nothing erodes respect more than two tier justice https://t.co/QRNeNDZYJp