<P> `` The catbird seat '' is an American English idiomatic phrase used to describe an enviable position , often in terms of having the upper hand or greater advantage in any type of dealing among parties . According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the first recorded usage occurred in a 1942 humorous short story by James Thurber titled `` The Catbird Seat , '' 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 , the baseball broadcaster , and that to Barber `` sitting in the catbird seat '' meant `` ' sitting pretty , ' like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him . '' </P>
<P> `` The catbird seat '' is an American English idiomatic phrase used to describe an enviable position , often in terms of having the upper hand or greater advantage in any type of dealing among parties . According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the first recorded usage occurred in a 1942 humorous short story by James Thurber titled `` The Catbird Seat , '' 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 , the baseball broadcaster , and that to Barber `` sitting in the catbird seat '' meant `` ' sitting pretty , ' like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him . '' </P>
what does it mean to be in the catbird seat
what does it mean to be in the catbird seat
an enviable position the upper hand or greater advantage sitting pretty
an enviable position the upper hand or greater advantage sitting pretty