catbird seat

"The catbird seat" is an idiomatic phrase used to describe an enviable position, often in terms of having the upper hand or greater advantage in all types of dealings among parties. According to the Oxford English Dictionary,^[1] the first recorded usage occurred in a 1942 humorous short story by James Thurber titled "The Catbird Seat,"^[2] which features a character, Mrs. Barrows, who likes to use the phrase. Another character, Joey Hart, explains that Mrs. Barrows must have picked up the expression from Red Barber and that to Barber "sitting in the catbird seat" meant "'sitting pretty,' like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him." Further usage can be found in P. G. Wodehouse's 1958 novel Cocktail Time: "I get you. If we swing it, we'll be sitting pretty, 'In the catbird seat.'"

According to Douglas Harper's Online Etymological Dictionary, the phrase refers to the Gray Catbird and was used already in the 19th century in the American South.^[3] However, another clue to the history of the word may come from the Australian bowerbird of the family Ptilonorhynchidae, also known as the catbird. This bird is known for the extraordinary lengths that the males will go to in order to build a bower to attract a mate. Some birds will assemble several hundred colored rocks or shells, arranging them in a remarkable and artistic display, in order to build the "seat" atop which his mate will eventually be enthroned.

"In the catbird seat" was among the numerous folksy expressions used by legendary baseball broadcaster Red Barber. According to Barber's daughter, after her father read Thurber's story, he began using the phrase "in the catbird seat." However, according to "Colonel" Bob Edwards' book Fridays with Red, Barber claimed that Thurber got this and many other expressions from him, and that Barber had first heard the term used during a poker game in Cincinnati during the Great Depression.^[4] Barber himself also put forth this version of events in his 1968 autobiography, Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat.^[5]

"The Catbird Seat", is also a well known short story by renowned writer, James Thurber. Thurber's short story is studied in schools all across the world because of Thurber's interesting use of indirect characterization. In the novel, the meticulous main character, Mr. Martin, is afraid that he may be fired by the boss's new assistant. Therefore, he plans to kill the new assistant but when he arrives to carry out his plan, he gets cold feet. He cannot kill her so he begins drinking and smoking and doing everything that people who know him know he would not do. Then he tells her that he is going to kill the boss. The new assistant comes running into work the next day to tell everybody her story, but nobody believes her and they believe that she is crazy so the boss has no choice but to fire her.

References

External links

• Image of a satin bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) and the collection of objects near its nest
• Image of an artistic interpretation of a "catbird". This piece was replicated in a stone inlay and installed at Gracie Mansion, the New York City Mayoral residence.