What  a repertoire of lively words Manning presents in her NY times draft,  opening with:

“A ‘slumgullion‘ is a stew of leftovers, and while the dish has been described as ‘watery,’ the word itself is delectably unusual and juicily descriptive”.

Looking for a new way to describe a chatty cathy try flibbertigibbet.

Manning also points  readers to the Secret Language of Crime where I learned that dromedary was not just a word my old friend created but a widely used term from the ’50’s – the 1850’s.