I saw a documentary where they broke down and analysed all of Agatha Christie's works and she almost exclusively used 'said'. To me it's an invisible word when I'm reading but I think when I'm writing I get paranoid about it. I think that's why people often resort to "the taller man", "The older boy" thing, it's just hard to write the same word or someones name repeatedly without being worried about sounding repetitive, but actually it's not so noticable to the reader. Plain speaking is better

*squishes you tight, just coz* ♥ xxx