A Martin Short documentary introduced me to a new word — tummler — and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
It’s a Yiddish word commonly used during the Catskills-era for the person whose actual job was turning a hotel of strangers into a temporary community.
Not the performer on stage. The one actually out working the room — at breakfast, the pool, the lobby — making sure nobody’s left standing alone.
This week I’m making the case that a huge number of the women in our lives are doing this work constantly, for free, and calling it “being nice” instead of what it is: a real, underrated skill.
We get into what it looks like, whether it’s dying out or just migrating into group chats, and why you should text the tummler in your life and tell her you appreciate her.
Also this week: a quick check-in on my July whimsy movie project. Darby O’Gill and the Little People is a glorious practical-effects mess (Sean Connery’s Irish accent, less glorious). And A Fish Called Wanda — my first time watching, four decades late — reminded me that Jamie Lee Curtis is stunning, and her wardrobe, whew, I’m still envious of those dresses today. Well, maybe not the bright florals.
