There are lots of strange words and/or phrases that appear in the novel:

schizo

paranoiacs

card (as in "you're being a card")

attache (not something you hear everyday when talking about a brief case)

Uggauggaboo (and other strange sounds made at the zoo)

@#$% (John explains that this will substitute for bad words, but it's still strange to see)

madhouse

scungilli and fish killies (not food you would run by in an everyday market, at least one in CA)

kitchykitchykitchykoo(to the piranha's in the pet shop at Beekman's)

floorwalker

hubcaps (only because now they are more commonly called "rims" and when I read it with my class I had to stop and explain that "rims" used to be known as hubcaps- although it was news to me that the word had gone out of style)

TV spectacular

Clomp! Clomp! (to the sounds of roller-skates running up the stairs)

oxygen-tent

DDT-dusting

This is going to be a bit subjective, because what is odd to me might not be odd to you, and vice versa, but here are a list of ten odd, rare, or surprising words from that book:unmentionables

supercolossal

dimwit

subliminally

scraaaaaaatchy

paranoiacs

washerwomen

dialhole

prevaricating

 headshrinker