….can “hinky” and “lumpy” be used interchangably? For instance, Detective Charles looked at the evidence, turned to his partner and said, there’s something hinky about this case, Bill. Or, On the surface, all the evidence pointed to Mister Anchovy as the villain, but Detective Charles thought something there was something lumpy about the whole chain of events.
Discuss.
27th Street 
Detective Charles? Been watching The Thin Man, have ya? That reminds me… I need to go back and watch those again!
hinky goes back to the ’30s?
I wasn’t thinking about The Thin Man…Detective Charles just came spewing out of my little brain. Clearly we need a study done on the origins of hinky. Ink had me convinced it was Mickey Spillane. Both terms, hinky and lumpy were used by Clark Johnson’s character in the Homoside TV series.
I have never used either of those words, at least not in that sense, so I would say go for it. Or make a hybrid word – himpy or lunky.
Interesting thought…to my knowledge it was Micky Spillane who made the slang term popular back in the ’50s and it by my thinking it has once again entered common usage because of CSI Vegas…soooooo…imagine Catherine from CSI uttering the line “there is sumptin mighty hinky about that bloated corpse over there”then try it as “there is sumptin mighty lumpy about that bloated corpse over there”. When in doubt stick with hinky but personally I think the term should be left in the musty old pages of Hammer and one SHOULD say “there is something mighty fishy about that bloated corspe over there”
this is of course simply my humble opinion
especially if the bloated corpse was dredged up from a trout pond I suppose…